Professional Documents
Culture Documents
40 Answers
A Playbook for
Creativity and Fresh Ideas
Mark L. Fox
Copyrights Page
Copyright 2008 by Mark L. Fox and Wizard Academy Press.
All rights reserved.
Printed in Canada
Permission to reproduce or transmit in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or
by an information storage and retrieval system, must be obtained by
writing to the publisher at the address below:
Wizard Academy Press
16221 Crystal Hills Drive
Austin, TX 78737
512.295.5700 voice, 512.295.5701 fax
www.WizardAcademyPress.com
Ordering Information:
To order additional copies, contact your local bookstore, visit
www.WizardAcademyPress.com, or call 1.800.425.4769
Quantity discounts are available.
ISBN: 1-932226-63-X
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Fox, L. Mark.
Da vinci and the 40 answers: a playbook for creativity and
fresh ideas/Mark L. Fox.
p. cm.
ISBN 1-932226-63-X
Credits:
Cover and illustrations by Timothy McClelland
First printing: June 2008
Second printing: August 2008
Third printing: January 2009
Fourth printing: December 2009
Contents
Preface
Introduction
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3 Try It
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4 Sensible Design
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5 Clear as Mud
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6 View Point
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7 Universal Network
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9 Brainstorming
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11 Segmentation
144
12 Taking Out
150
13 Local Quality
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14 Asymmetry
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15 Merging
167
16 Multifunctionality
173
17 Nested Doll
175
18 Weight Compensation
179
19 Preliminary Counteraction
189
20 Preliminary Action
190
21 Beforehand Compensation
193
22 Equipotentiality
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200
24 Curvature
203
25 Dynamics
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208
27 Another Dimension
212
28 Mechanical Vibration
217
29 Periodic Action
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223
Exceeding Expectations
Less Can Be More
An Alternate Aspect
Shake Things Up
Eyeballs and Astronauts
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31 Skipping
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32 Blessing in Disguise
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33 Feedback
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34 Intermediary
240
35 Self-Service
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36 Copying
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37 Cheap Disposables
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41 Porous Materials
262
42 Color/Clarity Changes
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43 Homogeneity
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46 Phase Transitions
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47 Thermal Expansion
48 Strong Oxidants
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49 Inert Atmosphere
50 Composite Materials
Conclusion
Afterward
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Glossary
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Index
What is Wizard Academy?
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Preface
This is not a _______ for Dummies book. This book requires
you to think. Consider yourself forewarned.
When my wife decides to read, she usually picks up a
Danielle Steel novel because, it doesnt require any real
thought to enjoy it. Thats the same scoop I get when I ask
her why she watches re-runs of Mayberry R.F.D. and
Little House on the Prairie before dinner every night. My
wife is extremely intelligent, but after work she likes to give
her mind a rest, which of course we all need to do at times.
If you are looking for brain-dead entertainment,
then please put this book down now.
This is a business book on creativity, innovation, marketing,
and advertising. This book is intended to teach you how to
run your business and life better, and the pages that follow do
require some real thought. The ideas and concepts presented
here are intended to make you think about things differently.
That requires change, and for most of us, change is hard.
institution. The class Roy was referring to that day, da Vinci and
the 40 Answers, was developed at the academy. This course is
currently taught both at the academy and at many corporations,
organizations, and non-profits like yours.
My default mode is left-brain logical and Roys is more rightbrain creative. This makes for an interesting mix of personalities
and perspectives in a dual-instructed course. Most peoples
personality and predominate mode of thinking favors one side
of the brain, but both of us enjoy spending time in our other,
lesser-used hemisphere. We love to spend time in both worlds,
and desire for you to do the same. That is one of the aims of
this book: to convince you that you need to find a better state of
balance by using both sides of your brain.
The first half of the book will cover the basics of creativity
and innovation: relearning how to play, being inspired to play,
seeing the value in play, and examining the discoveries of people
who were able to escape into their right brain and see beyond
societal definitions of right or wrong thinking.
Well examine right-brain logic through the eyes of several
great thinkers: Leonardo da Vinci, Genrikh Altshuller,
Buckminster Fuller, and Walt Disney. I believe these basics
were the foundation for these innovators creativity. These men
may not have used my exact terms to describe the principles of
creativity, or even been conscious they were using them, but I
feel strongly that these basics are the common denominator of
their great minds. This section should give you a solid starting
point to help you understand and practice creativity and
innovation.
In the second half of this book, well cover the tactics: Real-life
solutions to universal problems. At the end of this book, youll
understand the tactical approach to applying creativity based
on the 40 Universal Answers, a series of specific techniques
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some thought to connect the two ideas, but the connections are
always there. These supplemental sections support the concept
of duality. Can two different meanings of the same thing both
be right? Thats for you to decide.
My hope is that the information within this book inspires you
to draw your own connections and conclusions, and come up
with creative ideas and thoughts even beyond what I intended.
I want you to learn to take your own mind to a higher level of
creative thought. This book is designed to give you the ability
to think outside of the box at the snap of the fingers. In short,
youll be handed the keys to innovation.
It is my greatest hope that da Vinci and the 40 Answers helps
provide a foundation of both basic and tactical ways to apply
creativity and innovation in your world. Onward!
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Introduction
Proverbs contradict each other.
That is the wisdom of a nation.
Stanislaw Jerzy Lec
Weve all heard the expression, think outside the box.
The problem with this concept is that many people do not
understand what the box is, much less how to escape this cage.
When we are facing a problem, we use what we already know
to determine the solution. The box is the frame of reference, the
starting point for deductive reasoning.
When we deduce something, we start with a known point.
Deductive reasoning applies logic that moves us from the general
to the specific by using known facts, definitions, principles, and
properties to reach a conclusion.
The problem with the box is quite simple. If youre starting
with what is known and youre only willing to look at what can
be extrapolated from the known, then how do you discover a
thing that is not directly relative to the known? The answer to
this quandary lies in duality.
Duality is the concept of equal but opposite. When we identify a
thing an idea, a concept, a principle, or a problem for example,
we must be able to then step back and look at the thing we
havent been looking at. What is the opposite of this thing or
this problem?
The scientific method is a problem-solving process. Scientific
reasoning dictates that you begin with a hypothesis, a theory
whose truth you wish to test. Experiments are designed to test
the hypothesis by examining one variable at a time in order
to determine whether the theory is correct or incorrect. The
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the brain is looking not just for the solution to the problem at
hand, but for the principle that underlies the solution. It uses
systemic leverage to solve not only one specific problem, but
also all the other problems that are connected to the issue. The
right brain allows us to pull back and understand the entire
frame of reference. Our intuition is right-brain logic.
Your right brain has no real language functions. The languages
of the right brain are not literal, legalistic, or absolute. Therefore,
words that have specific definitions dont exist in the right
brain.
When we go to sleep, the left
brain disconnects and conscious
awareness winks out; but the
right brain is always awake and
always churning. The right brain
is looking for and trying to fit the
strange pieces that it encountered
during the day into a recognizable
pattern. The left brains projector,
your working memory, is off. Then across the corpus callosum
come the languages of the right brain the languages of symbol,
ritual, metaphor, simile, color, and associative memory. All of
these things tumble across the divide and appear on the now
empty visual, spatial sketch pad of the left hemisphere of the
brain. We call this dreaming.
When you dream, your right brain is trying to make sense of
the day. It is working to put the days events into a recognizable
pattern so that you can take the things that happened and
assimilate them into your schema and outlook. Your right brain
is the reason that you sometimes wake up with a new idea
something that occurred to you during the night while you
were sound asleep.
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those influences out of your head. Luckily, the right brain has no
shame and no concept of ethics, judgment, or accuracy. The right
brain is not married to right and wrong and it doesnt care.
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realistic paintings, such as the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, as
well as for influential drawings such as the Vitruvian Man.
Leonardo conceived visions of things vastly ahead of his time.
The helicopter, tank, calculator, double hull ships, theory
of plate tectonics, and the use of concentrated solar power
were conceptualized by Leonardo, although very few of his
designs were constructed or even feasible during his lifetime.
Although da Vinci greatly advanced our knowledge in the
fields of anatomy, astronomy, civil engineering, optics, and
hydrodynamics (the study of water), modern science was only
in its infancy when Lenny was alive and the greatness of his
ideas was not recognized. As Freud said, Lenny was like a man
who awoke too early in the darkness while the others were all
still asleep.
Lennys approach to science was that of a curious observer.
Rather than examining his observations and discoveries
through the lens of experiments or explanation, da Vinci simply
tried to understand the world by describing and depicting each
phenomenon as he saw it. If he had been hung up on the details
or been driven by a need to prove or disprove his observations,
he would never have been able to contribute such a vast array
of knowledge to the world.
The legendary curiosity of Leonardo da Vinci was horizontal,
not vertical. He never studied narrow and deep. Lenny looked
for the pattern the connectedness of things.
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Buckminster Fuller was another man who lived before his time.
He devoted his life to answering the question, Does humanity
have a chance to survive lastingly and successfully on planet
Earth, and if so, how? As a practical philosopher, he viewed
his ideas as artifacts. Some of these inventions were built as
prototypes, while others still exist only on paper. Regardless of
their current status, Fuller believed each of his creations were
technically viable.
Fuller is best known for the creation of the geodesic dome
the lightest, strongest, and most cost-effective structure ever
invented. His domes are able to cover more space without
internal supports than any other enclosure. The domes
become proportionally lighter and stronger as they grow in
size. The geodesic dome is viewed today as a breakthrough
in architectural design due to its cost-effectiveness and ease of
construction. Today, more than 300,000 of Fullers domes have
been built around the world.
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Well, yes and no. The spec only covers particle size. It doesnt
say anything about shape.
Really? Well, lets peel this onion back a little further. Does the
particle shape affect the burn characteristics?
I dont know, but you would probably think so.
Then why does the spec not
cover shape?
I dont know. I didnt write it.
That was before my time.
OK, then lets peel the onion back
another layer and go find out.
Joe Lombardo had several signature phrases he used to
encourage curiosity and critical thought. Peel the onion, was
one of his favorites. Lets shake hands with the physics, was
another. He wanted his team to remain curious at all times in
order to get to the bottom of what was going on.
Fortunately, I was curious enough myself to want to know why
the propellant was acting funny before the meeting. I didnt have
any idea what I would find, but once everything was found to
be within spec, I decided to look at the AP under a microscope,
even though this step was not required. I compared what I saw
under the scope to earlier data. Although I could not pinpoint
the difference exactly, in general this funny batch seemed more
hot-dog like.
We learned through a subsequent investigation that the shape
did have an effect on the propellant burn rate. We got a lot
smarter by peeling the layers of the onion and always asking
why (or why not).
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34
You Swine
The principles in this book do not apply exclusively to technical
or scientific issues. These principles apply to all aspects of your
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Time Travel
We view time travel as a science fiction fantasy, but has time
travel been proven? Think about that question from a curious
point of view. Im not asking if time travel is possible, but rather
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bottom of the SRBs, either. Arent you curious why the SRBs
were 12F?
The presidential report makes no mention nor offers any
explanation of how the SRBs could be 12F when it was a balmy
36F outside. And its not like there werent a lot of smart people
looking at this; Neil Armstrong, Richard Feynman, Sally Ride,
and Chuck Yeager were all part of the investigation team. Did
everyone miss this discrepancy? Why were more people not
more curious about this puzzling temperature differentiation?
Why didnt more people Peel the Onion and try to resolve the
temperature discrepancy?
Note to readers: Yes, I know this is a controversial subject and,
no, I am not against the Space Program. I had the honor and
privilege to work on the Space Shuttle for 15 years. That position
was the highlight of my career.
By the way, I was at the launch pad on January 28, 1986.
Curiosity Killed
If you thought I was going to say the cat, you couldnt be more
wrong. I hate that saying. Curiosity hasnt killed anything in
fact, curiosity itself is killed by conventional wisdom.
Think about tuna fish for a moment. Why was tuna sold in the
exact same form, fit, and function can for almost 100 years?
For a long time, tuna was just tuna. There wasnt any oil or
albacore, or anything fancy just tuna. There was no lemonflavored, light, herb seasoned tuna, nor was tuna sold in soft
packaging. Why is that? All those possibilities existed for those
100 years. Mostly because people didnt stop to question why.
No one stopped and asked themselves, What else can we do?
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of before and you might just find out that you dont actually
hate the person.
Challenge yourself to do something new. Schedule a time each
week to do something to spark your curiosity. You can even
start small. Try taking a walk each morning and looking for 10
new things that you have never noticed before, even if you have
walked that path 1,000 times. Youd be surprised by how much
more youll notice about your world when you look at it from
a new perspective.
As Charlie Tremendous Jones once said, The only difference
between where you are now and where youll be next year is
the books you read and the people you meet.
In Alan Lightmans book, A Sense of the Mysterious, he says,
Not long ago, sitting at my desk at home, I suddenly had the
horrifying realization that I no longer waste time.
Read both of these passages again.
Remember: 100% of the time, at least a part of conventional
wisdom is wrong. If you never stop to question what you
already know, if you never stop to indulge your curiosity, youll
never discover anything new.
Remain curious, just like our friend Lenny.
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Try It
I have not failed. Ive found 10,000 ways that dont work.
Thomas Alva Edison
Most new discoveries dont result in a eureka moment, but
rather a puzzled, what the hell just happened?
That ever-elusive eureka moment is the result of testing,
experimenting, demonstrating, and asking questions. The end
result is often unexpected, but once the unforeseen result has
reared its head, the accidental inventors curiosity will take over
and ask, Why?
At that point, the inventor has to test and demonstrate to explain
their unexpected results.
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not felt any of the heat waves during the test. He also suspected
that the magnetron was responsible for the current state of
his chocolate after all, his body heat had never melted a bar
before.
So, Spencer got curious. He decided to explore his accidental
discovery further and ask why? He placed a bag of popcorn
in front of the magnetron tube, and the popcorn popped all
over the floor. The next day, he decided to try to cook an egg.
Another scientist got a little too close and the egg blew up in his
face but the egg was in fact, cooked.
And so, Raytheon created the first microwave oven, known as
the Radar Range.
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In the 19th century, the cowpox virus used for the vaccine was
replaced by the vaccinia virus, an infection in the same family.
Almost 200 years after Jenners discovery, the World Health
Organizations certified the eradication of the disease, in 1979.
Today, smallpox remains the only human infectious disease to
have been successfully eradicated from nature.
Jenners curiosity and subsequent testing saved countless
lives, and helped rid the world of a dangerously infectious
epidemic.
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I doubt it.
Would you have done what Michener said? Or would you have thought,
I get it, and then walked on to seek advice from other experts?
Would you have allowed the illusion of knowledge to rob you of the joy
of discovery?
Roy H. Williams
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Just Do It
The next time you have an idea, go ahead and try it. Test your
theory or idea.
Creativity is coming up with an idea; innovation is getting
off your butt and doing something about it.
Roy Williams has told me many times that anyone can be a bestselling author. The recipe is this:
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How many people wonder why something is the way it is, but
never stop to find out? How many people have a brilliant idea,
and get excited about their idea, only to do nothing? Most people
never take action to test their theory or try out their plan.
Curiosity is important, but youll only see results if you actually
take steps to test your hypothesis and answer the questions
youve raised.
Fear of Failure
One of the key things to keep in mind when you are being
creative and testing and demonstrating is to leave yourself a
lot of room for error. Youre always going to experience failures
and make mistakes; thats just a fact of life.
Despite the necessity of failure to success, many people allow
their fear of failure to prevent them from taking action.
Do you remember Ken Jennings? Ken holds the record for the
longest winning streak on the show Jeopardy. He won 74 games
before he was defeated, and earned an estimated $3,022,700 on
the show.
In my opinion, Ken only made two mistakes in his life well, at
least in his life on Jeopardy. One was when he lost on purpose
because they paid him to quit (thats my theory and Im sticking
to it). His other mistake came in the form of
a truly awkward answer.
The question was Tool Time for $200.
Alex: This term for a long-handled
gardening tool can also mean an
immoral pleasure seeker.
Ken: Whats a hoe?
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The next time you make a mistake, put your error in perspective.
At least youre not a clean-cut Mormon with 6 million people
watching you say, Whats a hoe? on national television (the
answer was What is a rake?). Keep that in perspective.
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and charms. Only 28 people who took a bracelet failed to buy any
ornaments for it.
This week Brad told me, Groups of women are coming into the store
during their lunch hour to shop for ornaments, beads and charms.
Every day is like a party. The traffic is amazing. Were making lots
of new friends and winning lots of new customers. It was one of the
smartest things weve ever done.
Brad Lawrence had the courage of his convictions. Do you?
Life is more fun on the edge.
And the view is better, too.
Roy H. Williams
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Sensible Design
there is no perfect knowledge which can be entitled ours,
that is innate; none but what has been obtained from experience,
or derived in some way from our senses.
William Harvey
What does Christmas taste like? What does Christmas sound
like? Smell like? Feel like? What does the experience of Christmas
evoke in your senses?
Sensible design uses the concept of concurrent
thinking to create ideas. We all experience the
five senses at the same time; however, in many
cases, people do not consciously separate
the senses and attempt to feel each of them
individually.
Thinking about Christmas from the
perspective of each sense is simple
enough, but how does sensible design
translate to the business world?
Although most people have never tried to consciously think and
separate the five senses in their ambiguity, senses play a huge
role in consumers satisfaction with and attraction to a product
or business. Consumers evaluate products based on the way
the product appeals to their senses.
Manufacturers know this. The marketing concept of branding
is designed to create emotional ties between the consumer and
the product. Studies show that almost 75% of our emotional
behavior is derived from the sense of smell, yet a products
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When the guy raised his hand, I said, OK, I know you have a
$2,500 limit on your credit card because I know how these things
work. Go buy 20 Igloo coolers, have maintenance fill them with
ice water every morning, and then distribute the coolers around
the facility.
My idea certainly wasnt earth-shattering, but the team probably
never would have come up with a simple working solution to
the problem if they hadnt used the concept of sensible design
to think about their process from the perspective of each sense.
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Ive said many times, Most ads arent written to persuade, theyre
written not to offend.
This goes back to chapter one, Nine Secret Words in my first book,
The Wizard of Ads. Do you remember the nine secret words? The
Risk of Insult is the Price of Clarity.
Clarity. Ah, there we have it.
Rare is the ad that makes its point clearly.
The customers who cost you money are the ones you never see; the
ones who dont come in because your ads never got their attention.
I was writing an ad this week and decided to insert a word flag. I chose
a phrase of declarative rebuttal; And to that, we say, Piffle and Pooh.
Obviously, Piffle and Pooh is just a whimsical way of saying
Poppycock.
My client was worried that people might be offended, so he asked me
to change it to something else. I hung up the phone and yelled at the
walls. If youre curious what I said, just walk into my office. Im pretty
sure its still echoing in there.
Would you like to know the 4 Biggest Mistakes made by advertisers?
Mistake 1: Demanding Polished and Professional Ads
If you insist that your ads sound right, you force them to be predictable.
Predictable ads do not surprise Brocas Area of the brain. They do not
open the door to conscious awareness. They fail to gain the attention
of your prospective customer. This is bad.
Mistake 2: Informing without Persuading
Study journalism and youll create ads that present information without:
(A.) substantiating their claims,
Lowest prices guaranteed! (Or what, you apologize?)
(B.) explaining the benefit to the customer.
We use the Synchro-static method! (Which means?)
Its Truck Month at Ramsey Ford! (Come to the party, bring my
truck?)
Mistake 3: Entertaining without Persuading
Study creative writing and youll draft ads that deliver entertainment
without:
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Roy H. Williams
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Clear as Mud
Neurosis is the inability to tolerate ambiguity.
Sigmund Freud
Men and women both have babies.
Thats a fact of life because I just said so. If we make the
assumption that both sexes are physically capable of giving
birth and brainstorm for creative childcare options, do you
think we would come up with some new ideas?
I actually get out a camera during my classes when we talk
about this subject. If you look around the room, youll see that
the women are vigorously nodding their heads, and the men are
looking at me like Im completely nuts. But really, you havent
hurt anything by assuming that men and women both have
babies. Youve just gained a totally new perspective.
Now, what if I told you that the magnetic North and South
Poles were going to flip? Is that illogical? Not at all; in fact, its
already happening.
On average, the magnetic poles flip every 200,000 years;
however, the time between reversals is variable and its been
about 780,000 years since the last flip.10 We can prove this by
looking at ancient pottery. When the clay was spun on the
spinning wheel, the iron particles in the clay acted as compass
needles and pointed north. Once ancient civilizations cured the
clay, they created a permanent record of where North was.11
Ancient pottery reveals that the poles have flipped.
Why Does Earths Magnetic Field Flip?. John Roach. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/
news/2004/09/0927_040927_field_flip.html. Accessed 19 Mar. 2008.
11
Discovery Channel Ancient China Inventions & Technology. http://www.
discoverychannel.co.uk/ancient_china/inventions/compass/index.shtml. Accessed 20 Mar.
2008.
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Whether men can have babies or the North and South poles
really flip doesnt matter. Whats important is the fact that
theres no harm in assuming they can to break up the logic and
look at things differently.
The title of this chapter refers to ambiguity. One of the biggest
hindrances to creativity is the fact that people do not allow
ambiguity. Things must be clear-cut; right or wrong. We want
specificity from life and from each other.
Engineers hate ambiguity. When Im speaking to a group of
them, someone will always stop me and say, Okay, hold on
Mark. Youve got to clear things up a bit.
No, Im being ambiguous on purpose.
Well, Im not allowing my team to go through this without
further clarification.
Sigh.
We avoid ambiguity because of communication problems.
People want to know that theyre on the same page, but in a
brainstorming session, its okay to be ambiguous. Its okay to
think about other ways an idea can be interpreted.
People also get too hung up on logic. Obviously, logic is
part of the creative process, but logic can be restrictive to
the brainstorming session. My restrictions on logic really get
under engineers skin, too. When I tell a room of engineers that
absolutely, positively no logic is allowed for one hour, their
anger is palpable. I hear everything from, youre wasting
time, and if were being illogical how could we ever make
it work, to we dont have the budget for this kind of thing,
and this is stupid. They actually get mad.
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The next time you hear a not-so-funny joke, stop and ask
yourself if the punch line was pretty close to what you were
anticipating. If the punch line was expected, the joke probably
wasnt very funny.
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View Point
From a dogs point of view his master is an elongated and
abnormally cunning dog.
Mabel L. Robinson
Your birth mothers first name was Toni. She was 14 years old when
you were born.
That was the first line of the new packet that had just arrived in
the mail.
Toni held you after birth and showed a great deal of love and concern
for you. She felt adoption was the best plan as she wanted you to have
the security and family life which she could not provide.
She and your birth father were boyfriend and girlfriend in high school.
When you were born, he was 16.
Toni was described as a feisty, healthy kid who was very bright, but
whose behavior was out of control.
The social worker speculated that had she had her parents active
support and had plans to marry your birth father, she might have
raised you.
She was asked to leave the maternity home after some concerns about
excessive necking she and her boyfriend, your birth father, were
engaged in during his weekly visits to the maternity home.
Your birth father was described as being on the short side of average
build.
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If you had ever met me, you would find that last statement
extremely hilarious. I am 57 and 13/16th.
This particular package had arrived because of the sudden and
unacceptable rise in my cholesterol levels last year, as mentioned
earlier. This spike, which occurred in spite of the fact that I was
eating better and exercising more than ever before in my life,
just didnt make sense to me. Becker, my doctor, had suggested
that since I was adopted and had no medical history he could
refer to, I should take the safe route and get on Lipitor. But I
didnt want to take any more drugs.
I also had no real desire to search for my birth parents. Now
dont get me wrong. Of course I thought about my birth parents
from time to time as I was growing up (or I wouldnt be curious
or even human) but it was never that big of a deal to me for one
very good reason: I was raised by the best and bravest parents in
the world. In the 60s, they adopted four kids from four different
families, God bless them. I never had any reason to search for
my birth parents because I already had the greatest parents on
Earth.
But then this cholesterol issue got me going. I called the
adoption agency and asked if they had any medical history on
my birth parents. They said they could send me a packet with
non-identifying information, if I was interested. After some
thought, I said OK.
That was how I ended up with the Toni packet. Her name was
Toni Gayle something. I didnt know her full name because they
had whited out her last name on each page to make her nonidentifying.
Except on the last page. On the final page of the packet, someone
had made an error and whited out the middle name, Gayle, and
left her last name. McDaniel. Now I knew her full name.
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You can really get creative when you think about a topic from
the perspective of something thats not human. I once read
about an engineer at Sunbeam who pretends he is the idea. So if
hes making a toaster, he imagines that he is the toaster. He asks
himself, do I want people to look fat or skinny when they see
their reflection in my panels? How do I clean the crumbs out of
my bottom tray? By thinking about the product from the view
point of the product, he is able to make a mundane task both
more fun and become more innovative.
How could you change your perspective or view point in
your business to generate 10,000 new questions? What if you
assumed the view point of the CEO of your company? What if
you assumed the view point of President Bush? What would
you do differently?
Are the creative juices flowing yet?
Oh yes. You might be wondering if I ever found the medical
history I was searching for. The information was listed on the
last page of that fateful packet.
Medical history: The only medical history (as follows) was
provided by your foster family during the six months that you
lived with them before you were adopted.
You were described as a whiney, crying, gassy baby.
Gee thanks, how helpful.
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I held my breath.
He said, I want to apologize. Ive been sitting here for the last
half hour thinking about it, and I actually do remember some
nutcase sending us a proposal about all kinds of crazy stuff.
Youre probably right about us not calling you back, but you
know what?
I remember now, and we did run a background check on you.
Even though the FBI clearly didnt see the merit in my plan, I
still think that the view point approach could have helped them
find Elizabeth more quickly. How many other ideas could they
have come up to look for her? The view point of Nature alone
offered several viable ideas for the search. What if they had been
willing to explore other perspectives and think about how they
could find a missing girl from another view point?
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Most of us are out of balance and suffering for it. Were either too
pragmatic or too romantic.
The pragmatist never stops to smell the roses. Whats the use? Just
get the job done, move onward and upward. Winners never quit and
quitters never win.
The romantic smells the roses and gets misty-eyed. Roses are so
meaningful. Lets sit down and talk about our feelings and listen to
some music and understand.
You realize Im not talking about actual flowers, right? Im talking about
the pitfalls of a too-flowery life and the emptiness of a life without them.
Im talking about the dangers of a lopsided perspective.
Good things come into conflict. And there is no choice so difficult as
the choice between two good things.
Justice or mercy?
Honesty or loyalty?
Inspiration or accuracy?
Time or money?
Science or romance?
Which way do you lean?
A weak student will choose one side of a duality and disparage the
other side while a brilliant student will stand between the poles and
feel the energy that passes between them.
F. Scott Fitzgerald put it this way, The test of a first rate intelligence is
the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and
still retain the ability to function.
Life is a tightrope.
Leaning is dangerous.
Balance is what you need.
In fact, romanticism and science are good for each other. The scientist
keeps the romantic honest and the romantic keeps the scientist
human.
Tom Robbins, Another Roadside Attraction, 1971
Im not suggesting that you seek watery compromise, that mindnumbing happy medium cherished by the frightened and the weak.
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Im suggesting you find the electricity that flows when two poles of a
duality are brought into close proximity.
Electricity is not a compromise. It is an altogether third, new thing that
emerges from two potentials.
And so I will tell them one of the greatest, perhaps the greatest story
of all the story of good and evil, of strength and weakness, of love
and hate, of beauty and ugliness. I shall try to demonstrate to them
how these doubles are inseparable how neither can exist without
the other and how out of their groupings creativeness is born. John
Steinbeck, East of Eden, 1952
Can you see the truth in opposite possibilities?
Your opponent isnt always an idiot.
Your adversary isnt always evil.
Learn to love your enemy and feel fully alive.
Reach for the electricity.
Roy H. Williams
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and tell
Simple
Unexpected
Concrete
Credible
Emotional
StorieS
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Simple
In the military, there is a concept called commanders intent.
The commanders intent is defined as, a concise expression
of the purpose of the operation and the desired end state that
serves as the initial impetus for the planning process. It may
also include the commanders assessment of the adversary
commanders intent and an assessment of where and how
much risk is acceptable during the operation.
No military plan ever survives initial contact with the enemy
despite the enormous amount of planning that goes into the
operation. Military operations and the environment are complex
issues that are not easy to plan for and the enemy gets a choice
on what happens.
That reality makes the commanders intent even more
important. This statement is a simple core message that
everyone can understand: This is the desired outcome;
this is what we came here to accomplish. No matter what
happens, the foot soldier on the ground knows what has to be
accomplished that day.
Unexpected
As youll recall from previous chapters, Brocas area is the
portion of your brain responsible for filtering boring, mundane,
and otherwise unmemorable experiences from your longterm memory. An experience, product, or event has to break a
mental pattern in your brain in order to be embedded in your
long term memory. The movie, The Sixth Sense, mastered
the unexpected. Throughout the film, viewers are shocked and
surprised by the multiple twists. This cinematic masterpiece is
memorable primarily because the creators harnessed the power
of the unexpected.
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Concrete
I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal,
before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning
him safely to the Earth.
President John F. Kennedy, May 25, 1961
President Kennedys challenge to Congress is memorable
because there is no wiggle room in this statement. Kennedys
objective was to land a man on the moon and return him
safely within the decade. The challenge was concrete and
clearly defined, and thus more likely to stick in the minds of its
recipients.
Credibility
Credibility has an incredible impact on the stickiness of a
message. In Made to Stick, the authors discuss how the NBA
brought home the dangers of AIDS to their rookies in a way
that they wouldnt soon forget.
The NBA requires all rookies to meet in a mandatory session
before the season begins. On the first night of the orientation,
the players were hanging out at the hotel bar when a group
of very attractive women walked in. The women were dressed
for attention, and the players were happy to oblige. By the end
of the evening, several of the players had made plans to get
together with the various women later in the week.
When the players arrived for their first meeting in the morning,
they were shocked to see the women from the previous evening
lined up in the front of the room. One-by-one, the women
stepped out of line, introduced themselves, and said, and Im
HIV positive.
That stunt certainly added credibility to the NBAs message, but
how do you think the rookies viewpoint changed in light of the
womens revelations? Their perspective changed dramatically
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when they realized that the beautiful women they had been
flirting with the night before were, in fact, HIV positive. This
new view point brought home the message that the NBA was so
desperate to transmit: AIDS is real, and anyone, anywhere can
be a carrier of this deadly disease.
Emotion
One of the easiest ways to make a message stick is to tap into
someones emotion. Charities have known for years that if they
can make an emotional, one-to-one connection with a person,
theyll give more money than they would have donated to a
group fund. Thats why charities often have patrons sponsor
or adopt a young child in an impoverished, third-world
country. By giving the donor a name, a picture, and a story of the
recipient, the charity appeals directly to the donors emotions,
leading the donor to contribute more money.
Targeted messages such as these change the donors view
point as well. Even though there are a lot of people in need,
when a potential donor looks at the world through the eyes
of a starving child in a third-world country, their perspective
changes. Charities capitalize on this new perspective by letting
donors know that their money really can change one life, even
if they cant save the world.
StorieS
Stories add a human element to a message, making it both more
unusual and memorable. Think about Subways Jared campaign.
Almost everyone is familiar with the story of the man who lost
hundreds of pounds by creating his own Subway sandwichbased diet. Jareds story has carried a lot of momentum and
weight for the Subway campaign. Stories stick.
As you consider your issue from different view points, keep
Chip and Dan Heaths SUCCESS attributes in mind.
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No we didnt.
Yes you did.
They just looked at me with a glazed expression.
The shrink wrap was called white paint.
Blank looks again.
You used to paint the tanks white. When the tanks were
painted, you never had a foam problem.
Are you serious?
Well, actually, I dont know if thats true or not, but you know
what? Neither do you. There werent enough cameras then
to examine the details and see if any foam fell off or not. So
the paint itself may have actually been strong enough to have
solved the problem.
Even though my hypothesis may or may not have been correct, I
was just trying to get them to think differently and to understand
the importance of a new perspective, a new viewpoint.
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I was freshly married to Pennie and barely old enough to see over
the dash of a car but I wanted to show her the magical places of
my childhood, so we saved up enough money for 3 tanks of gas and
made the 200-mile drive from Broken Arrow to Ardmore, Oklahoma.
I never knew my fathers father. A couple of photographs and a pocket
watch are all that remain of the original Roy H. Williams. But my
mothers dad I knew. Roy Pylant (PIE-lant) was the iceman in Ardmore
for more than half a century.
My career as an iceman began one afternoon when I was five.
A restaurant called for 100 pounds of crushed ice and I went with
Daddy Py to deliver it. I watched him dump the ice into the restaurants
icemaker and then I carried the empty canvas bag back to the truck. I
wasnt big enough to do much else.
As I walked away I heard, Looks like you got you a new helper.
Thats my grans-ton Little Roy. He saves me a lotta steps.
Daddy Py couldnt say grandson without putting a T in it.
Daddy Pys house had chickens and a little stone washhouse and a
garage from which you could see the edge of the world if you climbed
up onto its flat tar roof.
Once, when I was nine, Daddy Py and I took a break from crushing
ice to go with Larkin from Larkins Bait Shop. He needed to check his
trot lines and asked if we wanted to go along. Trot lines were illegal,
of course, but Larkin knew how to hide them so he never got caught.
He got a big catfish that day and I got my first ride in a motorboat. I
also saw Tucker Tower. It was even cooler than the garage at Daddy
Pys house.
Summer after summer, Daddy Py and I would roll out of bed early,
drive to the ice plant and slide 300-pound blocks of ice onto his 65
Chevy long-narrow pickup. Roll the tarp over the ice, drive to Lake
Murray, crush and bag the ice, toss it quick onto the truck, cover it
again with the tarp and deliver it to the convenience stores.
I was good at it.
As a child, it never occurred to me that my family spent summer
vacations at Daddy Pys because we didnt have the money to go
anywhere else. I figured we went there because it was the grandest
place on earth. And Mama Py took care of us all.
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Back then they didnt let you become a grandmother unless you could
cook and Mama Py was a grandmother of five. Her food glowed like
the sword Excalibur. Dopers would give up drugs for it. Ministers
praised it from the pulpit. Shakespeare wrote sonnets about it.
Mama Py had a vegetable garden. Bright rays of color would shine
from her kitchen windows as she prepared tomatoes, okra and corn
on the cob with bowls of beans and fried potatoes. Her kitchen table
glimmered like a leprechauns pot of gold.
Then Daddy Py would arrive with a tinfoil bundle and 2 mysterious
jars of liquid. The quart Pepsi bottle with the screw-on cap contained a
thin, grey-brown au jus, redolent with coarse black pepper. The baby
food jar contained an equally thin, red liquid that sparkled with what
appeared to be cayenne. The tinfoil contained sliced brisket. Airplanes
buzzed the house to get a sniff of it. This was Lieutenant McKersons
barbecue.
We delivered ice to him every morning.
The sidewalk in front of McKersons was broken. The building had no
air conditioner. A tightly sprung screen door traded magical aromas
for outside air. There was a hole worn in the linoleum in front of the
serving counter, its edges smooth, tapering down to a mirror of grey
cement, the silent work of a million shoes standing, twisting, turning
to leave with their tinfoil treasures and sparkling jars. I looked into that
mirror and saw the soul of America.
And it was beautiful.
Rich men had tried for decades to get McKersons recipe by offering to
franchise his little place, but McKerson had no interest. He cooked for
the tired, the poor, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free.
Each morning Id hold open the screen door and Daddy Py would
plunge into the mist with a 12-and-a-half-pound block of ice. I never
saw McKersons face. These early morning hours had him boiling
Pepsi bottles and baby food jars in a 25-gallon aluminum pot. I saw
only the white apron strings tied behind his neck and back. He didnt
turn to see who we were. Our delivery of the ice was a morning ritual
worn as smooth as the hole in the linoleum. We were gone in less than
ten seconds. Ice is an impatient master.
One day as we drove away, I asked, What branch of the service was
Lieutenant McKerson in?
He was never in the military. His mama just liked the name.
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A decade later I sat with Pennie, my young wife, across the street from
Lieutenant McKersons in Ardmore. Daddy Py and Mama Py were
dead. I told Pennie about the Pepsi bottles, the baby food jars and the
soul of America. We were gazing in silence at the tired little building
when an ancient man emerged in a glowing white apron. He hung an
Open sign on a hook outside. We watched as he went back in.
I sat and thought.
Then I drove away, unwilling to taint the taste of the memory.
Roy H. Williams
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Universal Network
When one tugs at a single thing in nature,
he finds it attached to the rest of the world.
John Muir
Weve talked a lot about creativity, but what exactly is creativity
anyway?
Creativity is bringing into being something which didnt exist
before, either as a product, process, or thought. This new thing
can be a combination of things that already exist things that
were not previously used or applied in the same manner. I refer
to this phenomenon as combination creativity.
Combination creativity looks at the connectedness of things.
Combination creativity involves looking at things that dont
look like they should be combined, but somehow work together
in an application that was not thought of before.
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the shoe, and they called their new creation the pump shoe.
The prototype and the first shoes off the production line were
actually made with real IV bags, like the ones youd find in any
hospital. The pump has since been modified, but the origins
of the concept remain rooted in a product that was already in
existence but used for an entirely different purpose.
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Occupies no space
Has no weight
Requires no labor
Requires no maintenance
Delivers benefit without harm
Takes care of itself
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Saturday leisure time to mow the lawn, the grass takes care of
itself. You have reached the IFR; the lawnmower doesnt exist.
As youll recall from our discussion about ambiguity, the best
way to get a great idea is to give yourself a great number of
ideas to choose from. The first idea is rarely your best idea, and
in this case, rarely the Ideal Final Result. Searching for the IFR
forces you to reject your initial, flawed plans and strive for the
system that will provide the best solution.
The Ideal Final Result concept forces you to find ways to
maximize the good in a problem, concept, or idea, and minimize
the bad. There are several ways to look at this. One way I like
to apply IFR is to assume you have zero budget to accomplish a
task. This approach forces you to look at the available resources
you have on hand and brainstorm ways to make your idea
happen without spending any money.
Zero Budget
What the hell is burning in here? my wife demanded.
She didnt wait for my reply. She had smelled the block of wood
burning in my home office all the way from hers. She left the
room, returned with a fire extinguisher, placed it on the floor,
and went back to her office without another word.
A recent client of mine named David McInnis (also a Wizard
Academy grad) had just launched a startup company building
parts via Stereolithography (SLA) and Selective Laser Sintering
(SLS) two bleeding edge technologies designed to build parts
directly from 3D-CAD files by using lasers. This technology
enables users to create these renditions without using any
additional tools.
I submitted a proposal to the Air Force outlining a plan for
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cable to the electric servo had broken. The problem was exactly
as I had figured.
I spent several weeks trying to improve the design, which was
part of the original airplane kit. I had come up with several
versions that were better and stronger, but each version still
had some drawbacks. I just wasnt satisfied. The part was still
made of plastic and I wasnt ready to soil another pair of tighty
whities just yet.
Then I decided to take another view point.
I thought, Lets start from scratch and throw away the old
design. Lets look at the IFR, the Ideal Final Result. What am
I really trying to do? How could I accomplish my task and
maximize all the good and minimize all the bad? How can I
minimize the time and cost? How could I approach the IFR
equation so it got closer to infinity?
Applying these IFR principles, I wondered how I could connect
the servo to the prop with the least cost, least risk, and maximum
simplicity. Then I tried to think about my surroundings and
other hobbies.
This lead to several solutions, each one better than the last.
Then I hit pay dirt.
I knew from my sailing days that sailboats have all kinds of
stainless steel cables that have a clevis as part of the cable
assembly, and they look a lot like this design. There is no plastic
in sail boat cables, either. I knew even the smallest of these
cables were capable of withstanding 20,000 pounds of force;
they safely hold sails in even the strongest of winds.
I measured the exact size of the servo and clevis connections,
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Brainstorming
If at first the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it.
Albert Einstein
Weve talked a lot about creativity and the basic tools we can
use to generate new ideas and innovation. Still, many people
get stuck when the time comes to be creative on demand.
Examine the illustration to the right.
Id like you to try to write three
funny captions for this bubble.
Go on, try it.
When I put this picture up
in the da Vinci course, half
of the class will start writing.
The other half will put their
pencils down on the paper and avoid making eye contact with
me because they dont want to be called on.
How did you do? Were you able to think up three comical
captions? If youre like most people, you probably drew a big
fat blank and thats not your fault.
As a society, we are not trained to come up with a creative idea
on the fly. This exercise is no different than when youre sitting
in a meeting and someone puts you on the spot to come up with
a new idea for a marketing or business plan, or any other time
when your boss throws you in a room and says, Heads are
going to roll if we dont get some creative ideas and out-of-box
thinking.
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Brainstorming Basics
How will you react the next time your boss throws you into
an impromptu brainstorming session? Hopefully, the Basics
that youve learned in this chapter will help you come up with
creative ideas that wow your colleagues and boss, but first you
have to establish the ground rules for the session so that your
brilliant plan will not be ignored.
I know what youre thinking: Rules in a brainstorming session?
Doesnt that defeat the purpose?
Most people do not set brainstorming rules before a session, but
Ive found that laying out the guidelines before you begin really
helps start and keep the creative juices flowing.
This list of rules is a result of trying many, many different rules
and ideas from hundreds of Web sites, authors, instructors,
friends, and colleges on the subject of brainstorming. I have
added a strong dose of my own experience to solidify this list.
These are the ones I have found to be the most useful so far, but
I am always trying new things as well. I encourage you to do
the same; experiment and see what works best for you.
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Brainstorming Rules
1. Generate as many ideas as possible. Go for
quantity, not quality.
2. Encourage wild and exaggerated ideas, no matter
how crazy, ridiculous, or far-fetched the idea
might be.
3. There will be no detailed discussions about an
idea, except to provide clarification.
4. Assign someone as the scribe. The scribe should
write down every idea no screening.
5. Keep a copy of the rules in plain view.
6. The brainstorming list must be visible to
everyone.
7. Snowballing on other ideas is encouraged.
8. Postpone and withhold judgment of any idea.
9. Leave your titles at the door!
10. The optimum number of people is between eight
and twelve, with one-third of the group being
outsiders.
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Back to Basics
The Basics that weve discussed in Part I: Peel the Onion, Try It,
Sensible Design, Clear as Mud, View Point, Universal Network,
and Ideal Final Result, are the foundation for establishing a
creative mind-set. I believe that Lenny, Hank, Buck, and Walt all
used these basic principles as well as hundreds of other creative
geniuses. However, I am fairly certain all of them would have
had different names for the basics if they tried to describe how
they thought and behaved. Most of them probably never tried
to describe what they do in concrete concepts because they just
thought that way subconsciously. With these basics, we can all
do it consciously.
These basics cannot only be used in business, but in your
personal life as well. The next time youre buying a car, a home,
planning a vacation, or trying to figure out how to manage
your teenage daughter, try thinking about the issue from the
perspective of these basics.
Using these tools can make a world of difference in your ability
to think up creative ideas and solutions. Ive been through a
number of creative thinking courses. Ive had a great time
dancing and singing, putting paper cups on my head, and
swimming through swamps at these workshops, but when the
fun is over and I come back and sit down at my desk, I often
discover that I didnt learn anything that I can apply in a realworld setting.
I strive to give my readers and students deliberate methods and
deliberate tools to generate ideas quickly so that they can come
up with some crazy, wonderful, new ideas of their own.
In Part II we will examine the 40 Answers, which will give you
a set of even more tangible, tactical tools for generating new
creative ideas.
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Paid to Play
Im going to fix the space shuttle myself.
That is the most arrogant statement youll ever hear me make,
especially when you consider that I am no longer on the space
shuttle program and I havent been for the last ten years.
The foam issue on the Columbia mission has always been on
my mind. Despite the doubts of the NASA officials I talked
about in the View Point chapter, I still believe that a sprayable
polymer shrink wrap would keep the foam intact and prevent
debris from causing another tragic disaster.
I wrote a one-page proposal outlining my idea and sent the
document to several senior NASA managers. One of them
said, Well, I was on both the Challenger and the Columbia
investigating committees. Im sure we thought about this, but I
dont remember the details or what happened to that plan.
Having worked on the program, I suspected that an idea like this
might have gotten lost in the lower levels of the review process
and been killed before it could be thoroughly evaluated.
Not one to give up easily, I sent my proposal to another top
NASA official. She suggested that I turn in a proposal for SBIR
Funding Small Business Innovation Research. SBIR funding
is designed to encourage collaboration between the public
and private sectors and stimulate technological innovation
opportunities for small business owners. So I submitted my
proposal and had a couple of months to wait before they
awarded contracts. During this time, I wanted to find a cheap
way to start testing my idea. I wanted to Try It and get ahead
of the game.
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Department of Commerce
Department of Defense
Department of Education
Department of Energy
Department of Homeland and Security
Department of Transportation
Environmental Protection Agency
National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA)
National Science Foundation
U.S. Small Business Administration
Department of Health and Human Services
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In 1982 the Cook County Medical Examiners office found several cases where
Tylenol had been intentionally contaminated with cyanide. This was the spark
that infused billions of dollars into the packaging industry and its technology.
Aspirin bottles, Music CDs, soft drinks, and millions of products now have
state of the art tamper-proof designs. These same materials and processes
have been used to wrap and protect almost every product imaginable.
The technology advancements in this field have increased many orders of
magnitude in the last 20 years.
This phase 1 study will investigate this industry to determine if a readily
available material and process exists that would allow the Space Shuttle
External Tank (ET) to be shrink wrapped in a strong, durable, and lightweight
protective cocoon to eliminate the possibility of any foam shedding during
launch, thus eliminating the potential of future orbiter damage. The Ideal
Final Result (IFR) would be to provide an off-the-shelf, lightweight, sprayable
polymer that would room temperature cure and shrink, yet would not
require any changes to the current foam insulation material specifications,
processes, or inspections. This material would be applied as a final step in
the ET manufacturing process just prior to shipment of the KSC. Visualize
an automobile painting process. This would have minimal impact to
the current STS operations and would greatly increase mission safety.
Mark L. Fox is the CEO of SAAF, LLC., is a Chemical Engineer, and MBA, and
will be the principal investigator of this study. Mr. Fox was part of the Space
Shuttle Program for over 15 years and was a Chief Program Manager as well
as a Chief Engineer at Thiokol and is intimately familiar with the program and
NASA policies and procedures. Mr. Fox is currently a successful entrepreneur
in several industries.
FINANCIAL: This phase one study is estimated at $70,000 for a 6-month time
period.
STATUS: SAAF, LLC. stands ready to conduct this study immediately. A more
detailed proposal and test plan will be submitted upon NASAs request.
ACTION: NASA to review this proposal and contact Mark L. Fox, SAAF, LLC.
regarding their level of interest via a phone call. Mark will travel to NASA to
meet and discuss this further at the agencys request.
Mark L. Fox, July 5th, 2006
CEO, SAAF, LLC.
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Segmentation
Segmentation involves breaking an object into independent parts
or fragmenting things; basically, segmentation is a transition to
the micro-level.
Segmentation can be accomplished several ways, for example:
1. Dividing an object into independent parts.
a. e.g. Breaking down the writing process of a
novel into chapter milestones
2. Making an object easy to disassemble.
a. e.g. Sectional furniture that separates into parts
3. Increasing the degree of fragmentation or
segmentation.
a. e.g. Replacing solid shades with mini-blinds
Stonewashed Jeans
Stonewashed jeans are an example of segmentation as a solution.
The stone-wash finish is achieved by filling an industrial-sized
clothes washer with large, segmented rocks and new denim
jeans.
During the wash cycle, the cloth fibers are pounded and beaten
by the rock fragments, resulting in a worn-out appearance. The
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Corporate Subsidiaries
A corporate subsidiary is essentially the segmentation of a big
conglomerate into smaller profit centers. A conglomerate is a
company that has partial or full ownership stakes in a number
of other companies, firms that may be in the same or different
industries. By dividing the conglomerate into smaller profit
centers, the business becomes easier to manage and control.
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Every business that tries to rise to its full height will bump its head on
a glass ceiling they didnt realize was there.
That glass ceiling is created by the business owners core beliefs
about the customer.
Traditionally, 5 out of 10 customers will be in transactional shopping
mode. The other 5 will be in relational shopping mode.
Shoppers in transactional mode are looking for information, facts,
details, prices. Their thoughts revolve around the product itself, not
the purchase experience.
Relational-mode shoppers are looking for a pleasant experience.
They want to find the right place, the right person from whom to buy,
an expert they can trust. Meanwhile, the transactional shopper is
gathering the information that will allow them to be their own expert.
A customer can be a relational shopper in one category and a
transactional shopper in another. The labels dont define the customer.
They describe only the mode of shopping, the momentary mind-set of
the decision maker, the type of ad to which he or she will respond.
Heres whats currently happening in America:
One of the 5 relational shoppers has begun to think transactionally.
The reasons are:
(1.) concerns about the economy,
(2.) access to information via search engines.
Americans spent $29.7 billion online at Christmas (Nov. 1 to Dec 31,)
approximately $100 for every man, woman and child in the nation, up
19% from the previous year. In other words, there was $100 fewer
dollars per person spent in brick-and-mortar stores in your town than
was being spent just a few years ago at Christmastime.
And for the first time in the history of Starbucks, traffic is in decline.
Starbucks has always sold relationally. We pay for the atmosphere
of the caf with its half-lit earthtones and iconic logo - the idea of
affordable luxury - as much as we pay for the coffee. But some of us
have begun to compare the quality and price of the coffee itself to the
quality and price available from other providers.
Beginning to get the picture?
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Taking Out
The second lens of TRIZ, Taking Out, involves separating an
interfering part or property from an object, or singling out the
only necessary part or property of an object. In other words, you
remove the problematic aspect of the system or object, leaving
only the necessary phases or pieces of the product.
When you examine your issue, product, system, or problem
through the Taking Out lens, you should ask yourself, Is there
something I can take out of this product to increase the good and
minimize the bad? Is there a way that I can remove all extraneous
parts or phases and keep only necessary components?
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Franchise Me
Franchises are another example of this lens. In a franchise the
marketing, startup costs, and training requirements are removed
from the business plan. Many of the traditional aspects of
owning a business are taken out, because the franchise owner
has created a complete mini-business.
The result is a simplified business model for franchisees, one
that incorporates only necessary parts.
Cash Wrap
Ive used the Taking Out lens to simplify the purchase process
of my CDs during my creative courses and workshops. Many
speakers, presenters, and performers sell their work at a table in
the back of the room. Ask any of these people what the biggest
obstacle to making the sale is and Ill bet theyll point to the
cash wrap process. In other words, the collection of money in a
product transaction is a pain.
Have you ever stood in a long line at the end of a show or
workshop, waiting patiently for your turn to pay? After a
long session, all you really want to do is go home and relax, so
waiting 10 or 15 minutes to swipe your credit card is not fun.
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Many people dont want to deal with the hassle and stand in
line so they just leave empty-handed instead. I noticed this issue
at many events and wondered how I could solve the problem.
I asked myself, What can I take out of this process to simplify
things? I finally concluded that the best solution was to remove
the cash wrap process entirely. During my lectures, I tell the
audience that if they want to buy a CD they can just pick one up
on their way out of the room and leave. On the back of the CD, I
list a Web address they can visit to pay for their purchase.
Although my plan was shocking to many people, Ive actually
found that taking out the payment transaction was quite
effective. I looked at the cost ratio of the CDs and determined
what percentage of people actually have to pay for the product
to break even. Ninety-five percent of the people who take a CD
visit the site and pay me. They take the CD home, hand it to
their secretary, and say, Pay this guy.
No hassle, no lines, same profit. Problem solved.
Frameline Magnetism
Frameline magnetism is a tool that has been used by artists
and photographers for centuries to help pull their audience
into the picture. Frameline magnetism engages your mind in
the composition. This is achieved by not including, or taking
out, the details. Roy Williams uses famed photographer Robert
Franks work to illustrate this concept.
If you look at Franks photographs, he captures the moment
but he leaves out the details. The result is that you are drawn
into the picture because you cant tell whats actually going
on or what is taking place at the event. The phrase, tip of the
iceberg, describes this concept very nicely because like an
iceberg, the details of the photo are under water. You only see a
portion of whats really going on.
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Advertising begins only after you win the attention of your target, a
difficult thing to do in this overcommunicated world.
May I suggest you do it like the Great Ones?
When youre ready to tell your story, choose an angle of approach.
Then frame the scene. Decide what to include, what to leave out:
Specifically, leave out:
1. anything the listener already knows or can easily figure out for
themselves.
2. the name of the business anywhere it would not appear in
normal conversation.
3. unsubstantiated claims.
4. clichs.
5. complicated ideas.
6. comparisons.
7. self-congratulatory pronouncements, such as Were the number
one
8. statements that reflect your awareness of a competitor.
9. any promise you might fall short of delivering.
10. adjectives that are not essential to the clarity of the message.
The strongest ads use simple nouns and verbs with a minimum of
modifiers.
Choosing an angle is a bit trickier. You must find a perspective to
introduce a new reality. Dont just add incremental knowledge to
whats already known. Introduce a thought that will stand taller than
any other figure on the horizon of the mind. Its like setting the stage
for a Broadway production, and it can always be done in a single
sentence.
Heres a glimpse of how its done by the Great Ones:
It came down to this: if I had not been arrested by the Turkish police,
I would have been arrested by the Greek police.
Eric Ambler, the opening line of The Light of Day
My first act on entering this world was to kill my mother.
William Boyd, the opening line of The New Confession
There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost
deserved it.
C. S. Lewis, opening line from The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
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He was one hundred and seventy days dying and not yet dead.
Alfred Bester, the opening line of The Stars My Destination
You are standing in the snow, five and one-half miles above sea level,
gazing at a horizon hundreds of miles away.
Roy H. Williams, the opening line of a radio ad written for Rolex
Did you notice how I slipped myself into that list of the Great Ones? I
wouldnt usually have done it but this is Monday and on Mondays Im
ebullient. Its only on Tuesdays that Im modest.
Most people like me better on Tuesdays.
Here are some typical opening lines from average ads. Compare them
to the lines that come from unusual angles and better frame the new
perspective:
Typical: McMorris Ford is having a Clearance Event!
Unusual: We want to get rid of this new truck even more than you
want to own it.
Typical: Harvey Chevrolet is Going Out of Business!
Unusual: Here at Harvey Chevrolet were tired of being average, so
heres what weve decided to do.
Typical: Save up to 70 percent at Neederman Optical!
Unusual: New eyeglasses cost like stink. You know it. We know it, too.
Typical: Leroys Lawn Service has served the people of this city
since 1972.
Unusual: Life is too short and wonderful to spend it cutting your own
grass.
Typical: Juanitas Mexican Caf at the corner of Fifth and Madison
serves authentic Mexican Food from 8AM till 8PM daily.
Unusual: So you think youve had Mexican food, heh, Gringo?
Choose an unusual angle of view and leave out the obvious. These
are the keys to opening the minds eye. Do it when writing ads. Do it
when making presentations. As with every other archetypal truth, the
principles will remain unchanged. Details of their application will be
the only difference.
Ready. Angle. Frame. Harness these ideas and your thoughts will
gain speed and momentum.
Pow.
Roy H. Williams
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Local Quality
Newsworthy does not necessarily go to the worthy,
proclaimed Dean Rotbart.
We had just started Day One of the incredibly intriguing
Academy course, Newsroom Confidential, taught by Dean, a
Pulitzer Prize-nominated journalist for the Wall Street Journal,
and I was already awestruck by how inaccurate conventional
wisdom is in regards to the world of Public Relations.
Rotbarts session was truly an eye-opening experience.
Throughout the two-day course, Deans ideas continued to
scream Local Quality, although Im pretty sure he had never
heard of TRIZ. Like most of the great minds, Dean was applying
these principles unconsciously.
Below is just one of his insights into the PR world:
Know Me or No Me
By Dean Rotbart
I borrowed the headline for this column, Know Me or No Me, from
the March 2002 edition of Continental Airlines in-flight magazine.
The catchy title caught my attention on a recent
speaking trip to New York, where the subject
of my remarks, as it often is, was how
companies and executives can get
more positive news stories written
and broadcast about them.
Based on all the money and staff resources
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anticipate your customers needs?
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Think too deeply about customer profiling and youll soon fall into
niche marketing.
And the problem with niches is theyre not created equal.
Have you chosen a niche too small?
Reis and Trout inadvertently popularized niches in their extraordinary
1981 book, Positioning: the Battle for Your Mind. That book taught us
to consider the strengths of our competitors and the positions they
occupy in the customers mind before embarking on our own journeys
of self-identification. But many who read Positioning saw it only as a
treatise on niche marketing. They were wrong.
Chris Anderson openly celebrated niches in last years book, The Long
Tail, which was likewise misunderstood. Tragically, the seductive logic
of niche marketing makes perfect sense even when it does not apply.
Heres a classic example:
A dentist in a small town came to me for consultation. He no longer
wanted to see 6 or 7 patients a day who required only a thousand
dollars worth of dentistry apiece. He had chosen a niche and wanted
me to create a marketing strategy whereby he would see only 1 or 2
patients a day who required 10 thousand to 30 thousand dollars worth
of dentistry each. And make sure that all of them have the money.
Lots of people need that much dental work, but most of them dont
have the money.
I fear he left disappointed. There just arent enough rich people with
bad teeth in the average small town. My friend had chosen a niche
too small.
Some of my clients serve larger populations that allow us to successfully
target a niche. But when onlookers see this success and assume the
same strategy will work in their own small towns, the niche-devil shows
his horns.
Considering a niche? Do the math.
Be detached and objective. This isnt a time for wishful thinking.
If your marketplace isnt big enough for niche marketing, you can still
embrace (1.) positioning, and (2.) persona-based ad writing, a
technique that speaks to personality type and appeals to a significant
percentage of readers even when those readers are randomly chosen.
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Asymmetry
The lens of Asymmetry is usually applied in one of two ways:
1. Change the shape of an object from symmetrical to
asymmetrical.
a. e.g. Installing a flat spot on a cylindrical shaft to
attach a knob securely
2. If an object is asymmetrical, increase the degree of
asymmetry.
a. e.g. Change circular O-rings to oval cross
section to specialized shapes to improve sealing
This principle can be used to make your product, process,
system, or service more attractive to customers, more unique,
or to improve functionality in design.
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An Incorrect Example
When you stock the Baja 7-packs of beer, lay them on the side
with the tops of the bottles facing toward the customer. Right
now you have them standing vertically and the customers cant
really see the difference between the Baja brand and a normal
6-pack. I want to try this for one month and see how big a
difference it makes in sales. I really think that turning the cases
on their side will make the brand stand out more.
OK, I can see how that would probably make a difference. I
never really looked at it that way, said the Albertsons grocery
store manager. By the way, how long are you in town? I didnt
see an e-mail or anything
saying that corporate
marketing was even
going to be here this
week.
Ohwell I am not from
corporate marketing.
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Merging
Everybody called him Pepto, because every
day at work hed have a pint of vodka in his
back left pocket and a bottle of Pepto Bismol
in the right. Throughout the day hed retrieve
the bottles from his pockets, take a swill of
vodka, and then chase the liquor with a shot
of Pepto.
Are you serious? He was drinking while he
was working?
Oh yeah. This was back in high school and we were just a
bunch of rednecks working on the factory floor.
I had asked my friend Dave to tell me the story about the time
when he used to auction off his paycheck on payday.
Well, every year at church we would auction off a car. One of
the guys in the church owned a local Ford dealership and he
would donate a car to the church auction. Every year people
always thought they would be the lucky one to drive the car
home.
I ran the auction for the church, so I was very familiar with the
auction process, where to get the ticket rolls, and stuff like that.
Im also from Louisville, a huge betting community where we
were always betting on the horses (Dave always pronounces
it as haarses). One of the guys in accounting was even a
bookie.
On the factory floor I drove a forklift. There was a ton of stuff to
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Multifunctionality
Multifunctionality makes a part or object perform multiple
functions, thus eliminating the need for other parts. For instance,
imagine a toothbrush with a handle that contains toothpaste or
a childs car seat that converts into a stroller.
When you look through the lens of multifunctionality you
should ask yourself, What can I bundle with my current
products or services to increase their value?
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Nested Doll
The Nested Doll principle is usually applied in one of two ways:
1. Place one object inside another; place each object, in
turn, inside the other.
a. e.g. Measuring cups or spoons
2. Make one part pass through a cavity in the other.
a. e.g. An extending radio antenna
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I thought Bill Clinton was a good president for the same reason I thought
Ronald Reagan was good; both were excellent head cheerleaders.
Their politics, personalities and characters were different, but each
had a similar ability to keep things from spinning out of control.
Every organization has a head cheerleader.
Their business card usually says manager.
The head cheerleaders job is to keep talented hotheads, sycophantic
suck-ups, whining excuse-makers, moon-eyed lunatics and plodding
paranoids all headed in the same general direction. They have to
make everyone feel like everything is going to be all right.
Are there really people who can do this job?
Thrown into the deep water at 26, I was possibly the worst manager
ever to assume the position. But over the years Ive had a chance
to observe the great ones, and Ive noticed an unusual but recurrent
characteristic: Great managers are rarely excellent at any of the things
they manage.
Great coaches are great, not because they were superstars, but
because they know how to awaken the star that sleeps in each of the
players around them.
Great managers dont show you photos from their own vacation, they
ask to see the photos from yours. And it makes them happy to see you
had a wonderful time.
Great managers look for things to praise in their people, knowing that
it takes 7 positive strokes to recover from each negative reprimand.
Think about it. If in seven out of eight encounters we receive an
authentic, affirming comment, a bit of happy news or a piece of
valuable insight from our boss, we love to see them coming down the
hall. But if the typical encounter leaves us deflated, discouraged or
scared, our hearts sink when we see the manager coming.
Do your people love to see you coming? If not, begin looking for things
to praise. Keep your ratio of positive comments 7 times higher than
your negative ones and theyll soon begin to smile when they see
you appear. Their newfound attitude and confidence will bring new
levels of productivity. And all because you believed they could do it
and made them believe it, too.
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Great managers are never afraid to hire people better than themselves.
Each of the 217 times David Ogilvy opened a new office for Ogilvy
& Mather, he left a set of Russian nesting dolls on the desk of the
incoming manager. When the manager removed the top half from the
largest of these bowling pin-shaped dolls, he or she found a slightly
smaller doll inside. This continued until the manager came to the tiniest
doll and retrieved from its interior what looked to be the note from a
fortune cookie: If each of us hires people smaller than ourselves, we
shall become a company of midgets. But if each of us hires people
bigger than ourselves, we shall become a company of giants. David
Ogilvy.
Now walk down the hall and find a sleeping superstar disguised as
a plodding paranoid. For each of the next 21 days, compliment that
person every time you see them take a right action.
Then prepare to meet a whole new employee on the 22nd day. Dont
be surprised if they have the same name as the plodding paranoid that
used to stink up the place.
Go. The hallway awaits you.
Roy H. Williams
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Weight Compensation
The principle of Weight Compensation, or Anti-Weight, is used
to solve a problem or improve a product in one of two ways:
1. To compensate for the weight of an object, merge it
with other objects that provide lift.
a. e.g. Use helium balloons to support advertising
signs
2. To compensate for the weight of an object, make it
interact with the environment using aerodynamic,
hydrodynamic, buoyancy, and other forces.
a. e.g. Hydrofoils lift the ship out of the water to
reduce drag.
In other words, this principle allows you to adjust your product
or system to compensate for an existing weight. As youll recall
from Chapter 10, an important aspect of TRIZ is the idea that
contradictions have to be eliminated.
Weight compensation solves a classic technical contradiction
or tradeoff. For example, a product may get stronger, but the
new components increase the weight. Using the lens of weight
compensation, the inventor or entrepreneur can find a solution
that counteracts the added weight, thus solving the technical
contradiction.
Sink or Swim
Submarines use the principle of weight compensation to float
both above and below water. Subs float because the weight
of the displaced water is equal to the weight of the ship. The
displaced water creates an upward force known as a buoyant
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second photo? Think of this website as a place where you sit down
to talk with interested prospects. Make sure the virtual showroom is
equipped with all the same tools and props as your physical showroom.
Youll be shocked what it does for the conversion rate of inquiries.
5. Nighttime Silhouettes. Youve probably never seen one of these
which means no one else in your town has seen one either. First, locate
a tall wall in a part of town that has lots of traffic at night, especially foot
traffic. Then arrange with the owner of that building and the building
across the street to let you install a logo projector. Theyre effective
and cheap. In some situations you can even use an old slide projector
to achieve the desired effect.
6. T-shirts and Vests. My little ad firm with its 41 offices worldwide
was launched in 1978 with a T-shirt advertising a thought-for-the-day
recorded on a telephone answering machine. Take a Break in Your
Day. Dial Daybreak. 258-7700. I could only afford one such printed
t-shirt. I wore it a lot. Daybreak evolved into the Monday Morning Memo
and a trilogy of best-sellers, then became the foundation upon which
Wizard Academy was built. Have you visited our 22-acre campus?
7. Hand Stamps. One of my friends recently attended a ticketed event
that required a hand-stamp for readmission. The hand-stamp was a
delightful little mini-ad for one of the sponsors. Can you imagine a
better advertising vehicle for creating personal identification with a
brand? Theres something about looking down at your own hand and
seeing a logo and knowing that the image has value. Youre having
fun, the brand is there, and its part of you. The ink might wash off, but
the impression doesnt fade so quickly.
8. Publicity Stunt. Few things are as powerful as a publicity stunt
that wins public attention. Going for inclusion in the Guinness Book
of World Records requires a lot of work, but holding a world record is
extremely cool. Did you hear about the guy who dropped a golf ball at
the edge of Mongolia, then whacked it 1,234 miles all the way to the
other side? The journey required 12,170 swings of the club, 90 days
and 510 lost balls. But he got interviewed by Jay Leno on The Tonight
Show followed by The Today Show, CNN, CNN International, CTV,
ESPN Cold Pizza, and PGA Tour Sunday. Articles were published
about him in the New York Times and the Times of London. Then the
Associated Press issued a worldwide story about the exploit. Outside
Magazine featured him as one of its 25 Coolest People, the Mens
Journal put him in their Hall of Fame, National Public Radio broadcast
their interview with him from coast to coast, then several European
radio networks jumped on the bandwagon. Not a bad R.O.I. on a
90-day investment.
9. Self-Publish a Book. Nothing screams expert quite so loudly as
writing a book on a subject. So get an ISBN number, register it with
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the Library of Congress, pay a printer to print your book, and then sell
it on Amazon.com. You may sell only a few copies, but the copies you
give away will make you a fortune. You wont make any money on the
book. But youll make a fortune because of the book.
10. Spray-Painted Signs. In the early 1970s, Hamp Baker says Drive
with Care was spray-painted on car hoods salvaged from crumpled
automobiles, then those hoods were tied with bailing wire to barbedwire fences across the state. Nobody in Oklahoma had ever heard of
Hamp Baker, but his name was soon a household word. When he ran
for public office, he won by a landslide.
You may have noticed that each of these things requires time and
creative energy. Theres no one you can call to do these things for
you, youve got to do them yourself. But if youre willing to spend a
little time to make a lot of money, pick 1 or 2 items from the list above,
then get to work.
And prepare to be amazed.
Roy H. Williams
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Preliminary Counteraction
Preliminary Counteraction dictates that a person take steps to
counteract a negative action before the negative action occurs.
This lens is typically applied as follows:
1. If it will be necessary to do an action with both harmful
and useful effects, this action should be replaced with
anti-actions to control harmful effects.
a. e.g. Buffer a solution to prevent harm from pH
extremes
2. Create beforehand stresses in an object that will oppose
known undesirable working stresses later on.
a. e.g. Wearing a lead apron on the parts of the
body not being exposed to X-rays
In other words, preliminary counteraction means that you
should use anti-actions to control harmful effects.
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Im a big believer in the power of words. But when words arent backed
by corresponding actions, talk is cheap.
Have you ever felt a disconnection between what a company promised
you in their ads and what they actually delivered?
I carry a list of companies in my head called the Never Again As Long
As I Live list. Ill bet you have one, too.
Was it the advertising of these companies that put them on our lists?
Of course not. It was their actions.
One dumb decision can undo years of good advertising.
What decisions have you made that send signals to your customers?
Who you are speaks so loudly I cant hear what youre saying.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
1. What are you saying in your ads?
2. Who are you being in your store?
3. Is there a disconnect?
A dog doesnt have to growl to let me know its dangerous. Just bare
your teeth, doggie. Ill understand. This small, direct signal from the
dog overrides all the assurances of its owner: He wont bite, hes a
friendly dog. Ive had him for 10 years. His breed never bites. Its been
proven. Here, watch this. See, he didnt bite me and he wont bite you
either. What are you afraid of? Here are some testimonials from other
people who have petted him. Did you know this dog was voted Most
Pettable Dog of 2007? He wont bite you, he likes you. Trust me. We
care about our customers.
What is advertising but the assurances of a dog owner?
Talk, when it costs you nothing, is cheap.
Here are ten, hundred-dollar bills. Put them in your pocket. If this dog
so much as snaps at you, theyre yours. He wasnt baring his teeth to
scare you. He was smiling at you.
Wow. A smiling dog. I think Ill pet him.
Actions are powerful signals when they agree with your words.
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These action-signals gain credibility to the degree they cost you one
or more of the following:
1. Material Wealth
2. Time & Energy
3. Opportunity
4. Power & Control
5. Reputation & Prestige
6. Safety & Well Being
What do your signals cost you? What are you risking?
Words that cost you little have little meaning.
Roy H. Williams
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Preliminary Action
Not all preliminary steps are counteractions. Sometimes, a
preliminary action is necessary to improve efficiency and make
things easier for the consumer or user.
Preliminary Action is typically applied as follows:
1. Perform, before it is needed, the required change of an
object (either fully or partially).
a. e.g. Sterilizing surgical instruments on a sealed
tray prior to the procedure
2. Pre-arrange objects such that they can come into action
from the most convenient place and without losing
time for their delivery.
a. e.g. A flexible manufacturing cell
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Beforehand Compensation
So what do you think?
Thats the stupidest thing I have ever read.
That was my first indication that I might be on the right track.
It doesnt say what you are actually going to do.
I know. Thats the beauty of it.
Pat Rileys book, The One Page Proposal, is an invaluable resource
that shows you how to get things done in business. He learned
the secrets of the proposal from one of the richest men in the
world, Adnan Khashoggi.
A One Page Proposal is a document that succinctly expresses all
the facts, reasoning, and conditions surrounding an undertaking
or project. A One Page Proposal uses persuasive language
to build a case for approval and propose a specific course of
action. A good proposal fulfills all of these specifications within
a single printed page.
But sometimes a proposal can be deceptively simple.
I have used the principles in the book countless times, and even
though I had never met the author, I have been plugging Pats
book for years.
So I decided that I would put together a one page proposal and
send the document to Pat.
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I think Im a pretty reliable guy but Pat didnt know that yet,
so I had to compensate for the fact that he had no idea what I
am capable of.
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Equipotentiality
The technical definition of equipotentiality states that in a
potential field, one should limit position changes. In other
words, change operating conditions to eliminate the need to
raise or lower objects in a gravity field. For example: springloaded parts delivery system in a factory or locks in a channel
between two bodies of water (think the Panama Canal).
In other words, you should eliminate the need to work against
a field. Consider the altitude compensator carburetors on my
airplane. They are very advanced; my carburetors adjust the
air/fuel mixture automatically based on pressure using a spring
and diaphragm. In most airplanes, as you change altitude, you
constantly have to change the mixture of the fuel because there
is less oxygen at higher altitudes.
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thus eliminating the need to raise or lower the toy in the field.
The Frisbee accomplishes that on its own.
Like many of the other lenses, equipotentiality is not restricted
to literal interpretation. For instance, have you ever worked
for a business where you can never reach the decision-maker
because there are too many levels in the organization? These
levels are working against the field, or the gravity, of being able
to get to the decision-maker. Making the organization flatter
could solve the problem.
As you can see, liberal definitions of the lenses are often
necessary to uncover the greater potential for each principle.
Dont be afraid to think outside the box and springboard off
of these lenses to come up with your own solution or idea.
TRIZ Bitz
How can you eliminate the need to work against gravity in your
business? How can you make your product or service flatter
or more level?
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The Los Angeles Times has a big article for you about Justin Long, aka
the Mac from the Get a Mac ads [The article goes on to explain that
Justin Long is a smug little twit.] Also of note: There are apparently
20 more of these ads in the can, ensuring that everyone will be sick of
them eventually.
Tim Nudd
Reporting a $546 million profit on Wednesday, Apple also said that it
shipped over 1.6 million Macs representing over 30 percent growth from
the year-ago quarter. According to Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer,
this represents the strongest quarter in the companys history.
Jim Dalrymple, reporter
Complain about me all you want. Just leave the 546 million with my
butler at the front door.
Are your ads getting complaints? If not, why not?
A: Do you have no sharp points to make?
B: Or are you just afraid to make them?
Turn the poles of a magnet North to South and CLICK, they connect.
Turn the poles North to North and theyll repel each other just as
powerfully. Advertising, like a magnet, is subject to the Law of Polarity:
Your ads ability to attract customers cannot exceed its potential to
repel.
Most ads arent written to make a point sharply. Theyre written not to
offend.
How are your ads written?
Roy H. Williams
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board? Why not just flip the board over? The opposite surface
is smooth and easy to clean.
Isnt this easy? Of course, The Other Way Round can also be
applied to very complex issues.
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Curvature
The lens of Curvature is typically applied in one of three ways:
1. Instead of using rectilinear parts, surfaces, or forms,
use curvilinear ones; move from flat surfaces to
spherical ones; from parts shaped as a cube to ballshaped structures.
a. e.g. Use arches and domes for strength in
architecture
2. Use rollers, balls, spirals, domes.
a. e.g. Ballpoint and roller point pens for smooth
ink distribution
3. Go from linear to rotary motion, use centrifugal forces.
a. e.g. Rather than wringing clothes to remove the
water, spin the clothes in a washing machine
instead
Curvature can be used to improve the design or efficiency of a
product.
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Dynamics
The lens of dynamics involves changing the static design of a
product, system, or service. This principle is usually applied as
follows:
1. Allow or design the characteristics of an object,
external environment, or process to change to be
optimal or to find an optimal operating condition.
a. e.g. Adjustable steering wheels, seats, and
mirror positions
2. Divide an object into parts capable of movement
relative to each other.
a. e.g. The butterfly computer keyboard
3. If an object or process is rigid or inflexible, make it
movable or adaptive.
a. e.g. A flexible boroscope for examining engines
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TRIZ Bitz
How can you change your product or service to allow for relative
movement? Can your product be modified so that the user can
customize its function for optimal operating conditions?
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paint than you would have if youd just painted on the designs.
Even though youre over spraying, the process is much faster
with the mat.
Exceeding Expectations
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Another Dimension
Another Dimension can be defined according to four
principles:
1. To move an object in two- or three- dimensional
space.
a. e.g. An infrared computer mouse moves
in space during presentations, rather
than on a flat surface
2. Use multi-story arrangement of objects rather
than a single-story arrangement.
a. e.g. Replace a cassette with six CDs to
increase music time and variety
3. Tilt or reorient the object; lay the object on its side.
a. e.g. A dump truck
b. Baja Beer (liberal definitions of the
lenses allows for all kinds of overlap;
this is a good thing)
4. Use another side of a given area.
a. e.g. Stack microelectric hybrid circuits
to improve density
An Alternate Aspect
Think about an IMAX movie. What dimension does the film play
in? The images are not two-dimensional or three-dimensional;
they are in another dimension all together. The surround sound
and gigantic screen create a new world for viewers.
Disney World uses another dimension to keep up illusions.
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The theme park has underground tunnels that the staff uses to
take out trash and move around the park when they are out
of costume. There is a whole underground network at Disney
another dimension used to move people and equipment
around.
Microbreweries in a restaurant or bar operate on a similar
principle, yet in an opposite manner. Rather than hiding the
inner mechanisms of the system, the breweries display their
HVAC systems for customers to look at. By revealing the
machinery, the owners have changed the actual dimension
and layout of the buildings structure. Rather than putting the
other dimension underground or out of sight, they reveal this
new dimension to the customers for their viewing pleasure.
Finally, Torontos CN Tower, the worlds tallest building, reveals
another dimension to visitors. The building has a glass floor
that is 330 feet in the air. Looking through this floor to see the
world alters the viewers perspective and dimensions.
Did the new Grand Canyon Skywalk attraction snowball on this
idea? If you havent seen it, there is a new horseshoe shaped
walk with glass floors that overhangs the Grand Canyon.
I am certain, however, they never used the full power of Sensible
Design when they created their business. You experience this
beautiful view (that you pay good money for) but they wont
let you take any pictures!
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Can you reorient, stack, tilt, move, or use another side of your
product or service to achieve another dimension? How could
you change your product or service to reveal (or hide) another
dimension?
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I did it 12 years ago in 5 words for Rolex and Everest, the worlds
most angry mountain.
Apple is doing it in 7 words right now. Im a Mac. And Im a PC.
(Did it ever occur to you that the audio track from these ads would
work even better on radio than it does on TV? Evidently, its never
occurred to anyone who sells radio airtime, either.)
We gaze longer at pictures that have people in them than at pictures
that have no people. I believe the same is true of words. We pay more
attention to words that tell us of people than to words that dont.
Thats enough rambling for one Monday morning. Now go look Today
in the eyes, smile sweetly and say, I own you. Youre mine. Youre
happy and warm and comforting and good and if you think for one
second that Im going to let you be otherwise, youre sadly mistaken.
Be firm. Days can become unruly if you let them.
Roy H. Williams
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Mechanical Vibration
I popped in the VHS tape and flopped on the couch next to
Barbara.
OK. Now watch how easily the wings come off.
An older couple, probably in their late 60s, was removing the
wings from the Pulsar with the greatest of ease, all the while
smiling happily at the camera.
We were watching a promotional video for a new experimental
airplane called the Pulsar XP. I had recently gotten my pilots
license and like most people, could not afford to buy an
airplane of my own. Not being mechanically inclined was
certainly a drawback, but I was strongly considering buying
an experimental airplane kit and building one myself. Building
the craft myself was the only plausible economic answer to my
desire for a plane of my own.
See how easily the wings come off? Those two blue hairs can
do it; no problem. If the wings can come off that easily, then I
wont even need a hangar for the airplane. I can just store it in
the garage.
Barbara wasnt really buying the whole dog and pony show,
but she finally gave me the OK to buy the kit.
About 1,300 beers later, tail number N96MF finally went wheels
up.
Even with my first flight jitters, I managed to survive; yours
truly, crash helmet, and plane all intact.
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Shake Things Up
Everything vibrates and has its own unique natural frequency.
Vibration can often be the solution to your problem. Change
the frequency, amplitude, period, or cycle, experiment, and see
what happens.
Washing machines vibrate during the wash cycle to help break
up the dirt on fabrics. Cell phones vibrate to silently (in theory)
notify the owner of an incoming call.
Mechanical Vibration does not always require literal physical
movement. For instance, an organization might shake things
up and change the companys management, systems, and
processes to achieve better productivity and profit.
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They said during the first two minutes of the ascent, they had a
very hard time seeing; everything was blurred. Then, as soon as
the Solid Rocket Boosters separated, everything was OK. How
could the SRBs cause the pilots vision to blur?
Upon investigation we found that the human eye has a natural
frequency between one and two hertz. Sure enough, when we
looked at earlier rocket test data, we saw that the SRBs generated
a vibration that registered exactly in this range.
We had to make a modification to the boosters to minimize this
frequency in this range.
Everything vibrates.
Have you ever been driving down the road and rolled the
windows down only to suddenly notice a very awkward feeling
in your inner ear? The wind and pressure swirling around that
exact configuration has stimulated the natural frequency of
your ear drum.
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Periodic Action
The principle of Periodic Action is exactly as it sounds. This lens
involves taking action in increments to improve efficiency. The
principle is usually applied as follows:
1. Instead of continuous action, use periodic or pulsating
actions.
a. e.g. Hitting a nail with a hammer
2. If an action is already periodic, change the periodic
magnitude or frequency.
a. e.g. Replace a continuous siren sound with an
alarm that changes in amplitude and frequency
3. Use pauses between impulses to perform a different
action.
a. e.g. In cardiopulmonary respiration (CPR),
breathe after every five chest compressions
In other words, you look at your problem, business, or product
through this lens to determine whether a change in the action or
a segmentation of the action will improve the product.
For example, random drug testing is more efficient than
scheduled drug test dates because employees will have no way
to anticipate for or prepare to pass the screening. If the dates
were scheduled in advance or occurred with regular frequency,
employees could plan their drug use around the set dates or
take cleansing pills at an appropriate time before the screen.
The siren example above is a perfect example of periodic action.
If you watch an old episode of Mayberry RFD, youll hear the
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Busy Bees
In some ways, Continuity of Useful Action is similar to
multitasking. For instance, if you listen to an audio book while
driving, you are using that time efficiently and eliminating idle
time.
A 24-hour mechanic is another great application of this lens.
Rather than having the shop sit empty for 12 hours a day, a 24hour mechanic makes full use of all the hours in the day and
available resources. There is no idle time; the mechanics are
carrying on with their work continuously.
On a similar note, Ive often wondered why restaurants offer
different menus at different times. Why not just offer all of the
items at all times? The ingredients and resources are already
available, so why not use them? Making the entire menu available
at all times keeps the kitchen working at full capacity.
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Skipping
In Vince Poscentes book, The Age of Speed, he has a chapter
called Smelling the Roses that starts as follows:
Using speed to live a more meaningful life is
counterintuitive for most people, because speeding up means
compromising the journey, missing out on smelling the
roses, right? Well not necessarily. Although this is true in
some scenarios, not every experience holds deep intrinsic
value. Not every experience presents us with an opportunity
to develop ourselves, to make deeper connections, to find
meaning. And when I suggest you embrace speed, Im not
recommending faster strolls on the beach or accelerated
games of catch with your child. Im suggesting that you seek
to speed up the minutiae in your work and life.
I couldnt agree more.
Speeding up the unpleasant tasks of our life is desirable because
we then free up more time to do the things we like.
One of my greatest pleasures in life was the time I spent with
my Black Lab/German Shepherd mix, Lechien. As she got
older, Lechien had problems with arthritis in her spine and
other issues. That was a sad time, but when she got a tumor in
her spleen, we had to do surgery to remove the growth.
My veterinarian, Dr. Kate, explained our options. She said, I
can do the surgery myself. I am very confident in my surgical
skills. But I know a surgeon who is the best in the country, Dr.
Morgan. His skills are simply the best, but more importantly,
he can do the procedure in half the time it will take me. Going
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faster does not mean lower quality; in fact, the quality will
probably be better than mine. In this case speed is on our side,
because the longer she is under the anesthesia the more risk we
have of her not coming out of it. Speed here is good. Dr. Morgan
will cost a bit more, but the decision is yours.
My decision was clear; money didnt matter when it came to
my best friend. However, Dr. Morgans name rang a bell.
Is Dr. Morgans first name Paul? I asked.
Yes, how did you know that?
Well, he is actually a friend of mine.
The Universal Network strikes again.
In terms of TRIZ, Skipping is defined as conducting a process
or certain stages (usually destructible, harmful, or hazardous
operations) at high speed. For instance, dentists use a highspeed drill to avoid heating their patients periodontal tissues.
Other physicians use medical injection guns. This tool allows
the doctor to skip over the hazardous process of injecting
something into you. Theyre making the injections at high
speed, using a highly-pressurized tool to inject medicine into
your skin. This enables them to inject the medicine rapidly
without making a hole or mark in your arm.
Plastic pipe cutting works on the same principle. When you cut
PVC pipes, you want to slice into them very quickly with a highspeed blade or a water cutter so that the plastic isnt melted on
the ends, resulting in a cleaner cut.
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Blessing in Disguise
Blessing in Disguise is typically applied as follows:
1. Use harmful factors (particularly, harmful effects of the
environment or surroundings) to achieve a positive
effect.
a. e.g. Use waste heat to generate electric power
2. Eliminate the primary harmful action by adding it to
another harmful action to resolve the problem.
a. e.g. Add a buffering material to a corrosive
solution
3. Amplify a harmful factor to such a degree that it is no
longer harmful.
a. e.g. Use a backfire to eliminate the fuel from a
forest fire
Blessing in Disguise is essentially the idea of turning lemons
into lemonade. How can you make a negative factor into a
positive one?
For instance, some entrepreneurial motor heads have learned
that they can use leftover cooking oil from restaurants as a fuel
to power their cars engine. Theyre essentially taking a waste
product and turning it into a valuable resource. Or think about
singing the blues. Some of the greatest recording artists of our
time have taken a bad scenario and made their experiences into
a hit record.
Another example is computer virus attacks or firewall breaches.
When a hacker breaks into your companys Web site, how do
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from the food. Birds flying overhead and dropping you know
what on the customers plates was not on the agenda. So they
thought, How can we make this work?
Thats a question you should always ask yourself. What would
it take to make this idea work?
The founders ultimately ended up designing the canopy over
the eating area so that most of the bird species cannot fly over
the tables. Rather than viewing the birds as an obstacle to their
plan, they turned lemons into lemonade and made the birds
a key selling point of their product. The birds were, in fact, a
blessing in disguise. The owners of Breakfast with the Birds took
available resources and applied them much more effectively.
We had also included a Rainforest Safari on our Australia
itinerary. The Safari had caught our attention because of the
way the trip was advertised: small groups only. The Safaris
Web site promised that there would never be more than four
people on the tour.
David Armbrust, the founder of Rainforest Safari and our tour
guide, arrived at the hotel on the day of our trip and picked us
up in his Jeep. I quickly realized that the group size restriction is
primarily in effect because David can only pick up four people
in his Jeep!
David drove us about 40 minutes up into the mountains and
into the rainforest. Sure enough, once we got out of the Jeep,
kangaroos, wallabies, and exotic birds approached our group
in search of the treats David had tucked in a pouch around his
waist.
As we stood there, watching David distribute sweet potato and
peanut snacks to all of the animals, a question dawned on me. I
asked David, How do you have access to the rainforest?
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TRIZ Bitz
Available resources. How can you best use them? Can you make
lemons from lemonade in your business?
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The mind is full of clever ideas. But few of them will actually work.
My friend John Young says, A smart man makes a mistake, learns
from it, and never makes that mistake again. A wise man finds a smart
man and learns from him how to avoid that mistake altogether.
But not everyone who makes a mistake gains useful knowledge
from the experience. The average person explains away their failure,
forever unwilling to stare into the light and see that their sacred cow
was just a cow.
Are you strong enough to see the truth and name it? Are you willing to
identify the substance of your own mistakes? This humility is the key
to progress.
This week a man told me the story of Betty Crocker cake mixes, the
kind of story that marketing people love to tell: Betty Crocker failed
at first because all you had to do was add milk. Women didnt buy
it because they felt they would be cheating their families. So the
company took the powdered egg out of the mix. Then, when women
had to add both milk and egg, they felt like they were cooking and the
product began to sell.
That person you see at the back of the room is me, holding up a little
sign that says, Piffle and Pooh.
Assuming that the basic facts are true, what probably happened is that
the original mix produced a bad cake; powdered eggs are never as
good as real ones. The explanation that women didnt feel like they
were baking is a romantic misinterpretation of the data.
People make these excuses because its hard to say, Our product
fell below the customers expectations. Its easier to say, We ran into
unforeseeable circumstances. A cardboard weasel will go so far as to
paint his failure the color of success by claiming, we were ahead of
our time.
The problem with making excuses is that we convince ourselves
theyre true, and in so doing, learn nothing. What we might have
learned from the mistake is lost forever, buried under a pile of lies. And
now history must repeat itself one more time.
The weasel who announced the cake mix failed because women are
mysterious creatures was not the last of his breed. This tendency
to save face is why so few people who hold a job for ten years get
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Feedback
The Feedback lens is technically applied as follows:
1. Introduce feedback (referring back, cross-checking) to
improve a process or action.
a. e.g. Automatic volume control in audio circuits
2. If feedback is already used, change its magnitude or
influence.
a. e.g. Change the sensitivity of an autopilot when
the craft is within five miles of an airport
Anti-skid brakes, heart-rate monitors, quality control systems,
and prototypes are all relatively straightforward examples of
feedback. These systems relate the necessary data straight to
the user (or the machine) so that necessary adjustments can be
made instantly.
Another way to think about feedback is to consider a computer
hard drive. Feedback information is included on the CD or
startup disk that comes with the computer. There is a great deal
of data on the hard drive that gives feedback to the head of the
drive so the computer knows where the data is on the disk.
When the drive is spinning around at incredibly fast RPMs,
the computer needs to know where the data is actually located
so that the computer can locate the relevant information as
necessary.
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Intermediary
An Intermediary is a temporary or nonessential component
of a product or system which can be easily removed. The
intermediary lens can be applied in one of two ways:
1. Use an intermediary carrier article or intermediary
process.
a. e.g. Carpenters nail set, used between the
hammer and the nail
2. Merge one object temporarily with another (which can
be easily removed).
a. e.g. Use a pot holder to carry hot dishes to the
table
A consultant is an intermediary in a business environment. The
consultant comes in to the company to evaluate a certain aspect
of the business or solve a problem and then leaves.
Chemical processes often use this principle. In some chemical
reactions, a specific, otherwise unnecessary substance is
included as an intermediary. The new chemical, Chemical Cs
(a catalyst), sole purpose is to make the main chemicals, A and
B, react faster or move the process along further.
In the old days, bootleggers used salt as an intermediary to hide
their goods. When the bootleggers got a tip that authorities
would be coming on board the ship to look for loot, the smugglers
would put salt rocks on top of the 55-gallon drums of alcohol.
Theyd throw the drums overboard, and the salt rocks would
cause the containers to sink.
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Self-Service
The lens of Self-Service is exactly as it sounds. This principle is
usually applied as follows:
1. Make an object serve itself by performing helpful
auxiliary functions.
a. e.g. A soda fountain pump that runs on the
pressure of the carbon dioxide that is used to
fizz the drinks; this assures that drinks will
not be flat and eliminates the need for sensors
2. Use waste resources, energy, or substances.
a. e.g. Use food and lawn waste to create compost
In other words, Self-Service implies that either the customer
or the product serves itself. For instance, the Google algorithm
used to generate search results applies the Self-Service lens.
The algorithm is a type of Self-Service because the program is
constantly updating itself.
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TRIZ Bitz
Whos your daddy? Answers at the drugstore. MSNBC. JoNel Allecia. http://www.msnbc.
msn.com/id/23814032/. Accessed 27 Mar. 2008.
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Copying
The lens of Copying instructs users to use simple, inexpensive
copies of their product or service. This lens is usually applied in
one of three ways:
1. Instead of an unavailable, expensive, or fragile object,
use simpler and inexpensive copies.
a. e.g. Listen to an audiotape instead of attending
a seminar
2. Replace an object or process with optical copies.
a. e.g. Measure an object by measuring the
photograph
3. If visible optical copies are already used, move to
infrared or ultraviolet copies.
a. e.g. Make images in infrared to detect heat
sources, such as diseases in crops, or intruders
in a security system
Copying can solve many problems in a business. The copy can be
a replication of a part, product, service, or even an experience.
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TRIZ Bitz
How can you Copy your product, service, or system to cut costs
or make your product more accessible to consumers in distant
locations?
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Cheap Disposables
Paper plates, disposable razors and cameras, and lighters are
all inexpensive products that can be thrown away after one
use. Obviously, theres no need to bring expensive china on
a camping trip or picnic and a disposable camera is usually
preferred for a trip to the water park over an expensive digital
version.
Disposable diapers, plastic cups, and many medical supplies
operate on the same principle. These objects are simple,
inexpensive copies of the real thing, which serve their purpose
and can be thrown away afterward.
This lens is technically defined as, Replacing an inexpensive
object with a multiple of inexpensive objects, compromising
certain qualities such as service life, for instance.
In other words, create an inexpensive copy of your product
or an intermediary product that can be easily replicated and
disposed of after use.
Button Up
When I worked on the space shuttle program, I remember
struggling to find just the right material to grit-blast some parts
on the Solid Rocket Boosters. We needed a material that wasnt
too hard, and not too soft. We experimented with many different
types of materials because when youre grit-blasting a part, you
want to be able to clean the part up and create a pristine surface
to bond to. However, you dont want to take away too much
metal because the metal cases have to be reused. The metal
cases get thinner and thinner from the grit-blasting, and when
they get too thin they become fragile and can no longer be used
due to the pressure requirements.
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Ironically enough,
one of the best
materials
we
found was plastic
buttons, or rather
the pieces ejected
from the buttons
to create holes for threading. Those tiny little dots of plastic
were inexpensive, and basically a scrap product in button
manufacturing yet they worked really well as a grit-blast
media.
TRIZ Bitz
Can you improve your product or service using cheap, shortlived disposables?
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The soup was purple. At least that is what I called the color then;
now I guess I would say that the color was better described as a
shade of fuchsia (this unfortunate knowledge may be due to my
nasty exposure to Danielle Steele). Anyway, I had noticed that
the intensity of the color changed based on its concentration. I
could pretty much guess what the concentration was going to
be before I even stuck the sample in the machine.
Then it hit me.
Whats the tolerance required on the concentration
measurement? I had never read the spec, so I went back to Dr.
Holland and asked him. He didnt know either, so I called Oak
Ridge.
Oak Ridge informed me that the tolerance was plus or minus
five percent. I was furious.
Why the hell was I letting this machine crush my social life if
we can live with a range as big as 5%? The FTIR could measure
something like 10,000 times more accuracy than that, but that
degree of specificity wasnt necessary. The whole situation
reminded me of that trap we can all fall into:
Measure with a micrometer, mark with chalk, and cut with an axe
This FTIR was way overkill. I could see plus or minus 5% with
my eyes. Easy.
So I made up several different mason jars of different
concentrations, labeled them, and put them on the window sill.
Then when I got a new sample I simply held the new solution up
to the light, compared colors, and guessed at the concentration.
I had two to three percent accuracy with just my eyes.
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Good enough.
Social life restored. (Not really, I only had one date in the entire
four years I was in college, but I figured the story sounded
better this way.)
Of course I had never heard of TRIZ or any of the lenses back
then, but now I realize that situation was a simple case of
mechanical substitution. I exchanged a mechanical machines
results for an optical one my eye.
The lens of Mechanical Substitution is typically applied in one
of four ways:
1. Replace a mechanical means with a sensory (optical,
acoustic, taste, or smell) means.
a. e.g. Replace a physical fence to confine a dog
or cat with an acoustic fence with a signal
audible only to the animal
2. Use electric, magnetic, and electromagnetic fields to
interact with the object.
a. e.g. To mix two powders, electrostatically
charge one positive and the other negative.
Either use fields to direct them, or mix them
mechanically and let their acquired fields cause
the grains of powder to pair up.
3. Change from static to movable fields, from
unstructured fields to those having structure.
a. e.g. Early communications used omnidirectal
broadcasting. We now use antennas with very
detailed structure of the pattern of radiation.
4. Use fields in conjunction with field-activated (such as
ferromagnetic) particles.
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TRIZ Bitz
I was doing more work than necessary in Dr. Hollands lab. Are
you making the same mistake? How can you use Mechanical
Substitution to replace a mechanical means with a sensory
means in your product or service? Could the sense of smell,
taste, sound, or sight replace a mechanism in your business?
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Light as Air
Have you ever seen those really cool, outdoor, inflatable
projection screens at conferences or big events? These projection
screens are filled with air and can be used to make an instant
movie screen. The air-filled screen is greatly preferred to solid,
fixed structures that require installation on site. Inflatable
projection screens allow users to temporarily transform a
location into a high-tech, outdoor movie theater.
I believe air is also the preferable means of travel on a float trip.
I frequently go tubing down the river in Utah, and Im always
amazed at how much trouble people have with their kayaks
and canoes. Their little boats are constantly getting banged and
beaten up by the rocks in the river. My inflatable inner tube,
on the other hand, just bounces off obstacles and there are no
issues with rocks. Floating is smooth sailing for me in my air
ship.
Air mattresses are another great example of Pneumatics and
Hydraulics. Hosts can create an extra bed for their guests by
simply pulling the mattress out of the box and inflating the bed.
Air beds are much easier to store than an actual mattress, making
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wrap the warmer around the baby bottle. Once you squeeze it,
the flexible film inside breaks and allows the warmer to create
an exothermic reaction and heat up the bottle.
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Ive said it often: Most ads arent written to persuade. Theyre written
not to offend. Do you have the courage to take a position and suffer
the wrath of those who disagree? Will you choose who to lose?
24. Bombastic boasts We are positioned to become the preeminent
provider of XYZ do not constitute a position.
In my 1998 book, The Wizard of Ads, the fourth of my Twelve Most
Common Mistakes in Advertising (chapter 35) was: Unsubstantiated
Claims. Advertisers often claim to have what the customer wants, such
as highest quality at the lowest price, but fail to offer any evidence.
An unsubstantiated claim is nothing more than a clich the prospect
is tired of hearing. You must prove what you say in every ad. Do
your ads give the prospect new information? Do they provide a new
perspective? If not, be prepared to be disappointed with the results.
Is your business in step with the fast-coming future?
Roy H. Williams
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Porous Materials
According to American Heritage Dictionary, porous is defined as
full of or having pores; admitting the passage of gas or liquid
through pores or interstices; easily crossed or penetrated.
Porous Materials is usually applied as follows.
1. Make an object porous or add porous elements such as
inserts or coatings.
a. e.g. Drill holes in a structure to reduce the
weight
2. If an object is already porous, use the pores to
introduce a useful substance or function.
a. e.g. Use a porous metal mesh to wick excess
solder away from a joint
Deck design relies heavily on the addition of porous elements.
Most people dont think about a deck in this way, but one of
the most important things about designing outdoor decks is to
make sure the gap between the planks of wood is big enough,
or porous enough, to allow water and dirt to flow through. On
the other hand, you cant make the gaps so large that a womans
heel would get stuck in the space.
If youve ever been to a wedding reception or other formal event
where many of the women are wearing heels, youll know that
poor deck design can be a nightmare. Women step in between
the planks and break off their heels, and its just not a pretty
picture. However, the porous gaps are a necessary element of
the decks design to allow for the release of external elements
(i.e., dirt and water).
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In the Western part of the U.S., many people do not have air
conditioning units. Instead, swamp coolers, also known as
sump coolers, are used to cool homes and office buildings.
Swamp coolers are evaporative coolers. The cooler uses a
porous mat that allows water to flow through and evaporate.
A fan draws air through the vents on the sides of the machine,
which is then run through the porous pads. The heat in the air
evaporates the water from the pads, allowing cooled, moist air
to be delivered into the building.
Porous Materials does not have to be applied literally. Your
business can be made porous through the use of customer
advisory boards, an open house, or allowing customers to
sit in on a meeting. Find ways to let the customers into your
business.
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Color/Clarity Changes
Do you remember when Dr. Yarborough gave me a 9 and you
a 10 on that pop quiz?
No, not really.
The score was out of a 100!!
Ohyeahnow I remember.
Mitch Culbreath and I had not spoken since college, which
had been some 25 years ago. He had googled my name on a
whim, found me, and picked up the phone. After we covered
the basics jobs, where we live, pets, and so on I asked him
what his wife did for a living.
He told me she was a color consultant.
A what?
Yeah... thats what all the guys say.
Roy Williams latest project, Thought Particles, is based around
the intriguing question: What is the smallest unit of Thought?
Only after science had deconstructed matter into its constituent
components its smallest particles were we able to design
substances with the specific characteristics we desired.
Similarly, if we want to design an idea, make an accurate
statement, transfer a feeling, capture a mood, paint a mental
picture, send a signal, or persuade a person, we must craft a
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Are your ads gaining the attention of the public but failing to get results?
Find out why and learn exactly what you can do about it. Stay tuned
for complete details. (Insert commercial break here.)
Ads have gotten more creative, but they havent gotten more
convincing. This sucks for advertisers and the public isnt helped by
it, either.
Roy H. Williams
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Homogeneity
Homogeneity refers to:
1. Making objects interact with a given object of the same
material, or material with identical properties.
a. e.g. Make a diamond-cutting tool out of
diamonds
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In a way, ice cream cones are another example of this lens. The
ice cream cone holds the ice cream, and you eat both parts. The
cone, or holder, is a homogeneous mixture; the holder doesnt
exist alone, rather it gets eaten with the contents and is part of
the process.
Alternatively, think of a movie sequel. The sequel is created
from the same material as the original. The characters, setting,
and premise remain homogenous; in many cases, the sequel is
simply an extension of the original film.
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Parameter Changes
The principle of Parameter Change is usually applied in one of
four ways:
1. Change an objects physical state to a gas, liquid, or
solid.
a. e.g. Freeze the liquid centers of candies and
then dip the centers in melted chocolate, rather
than handling the messy, gooey, hot liquid
2. Change the concentration or consistency.
a. e.g. Liquid soap is more concentrated than bar
soap, which makes it easier to dispense in the
correct amount, and is more sanitary when
shared by more than one person
3. Change the degree of flexibility
a. e.g. Vulcanize rubber to change its flexibility
and durability
4. Change the temperature.
a. e.g. Lower the temperature of medical
specimens to preserve them for later analysis
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Phase Transitions
A Phase Transition uses phenomena occurring during phase
transitions, such as volume changes and the loss or absorption
of heat. For example, unlike most other liquids, water expands
when frozen.
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that is highly sensitive and amazingly accurate. And the younger the
customer, the more accurate their bullshit detector.
When selling, remember: If you dont admit the downside, they wont
believe the upside.
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Leonard Pitts gave us an example of
keepin it real when he opened his syndicated column recently with
the following lines:
Ive got nothing against fame. Im famous myself. Sort of.
OK, not Will Smith famous, or Ellen DeGeneres famous. All right,
not even Marilu Henner famous.
Im the kind of famous where you fly into some town to give a
speech before that shrinking subset of Americans who still read
newspapers and, for that hour, they treat you like a rock star,
applauding, crowding around, asking for autographs.
Then its over. You walk through the airport the next day and no
one gives a second glance. You are nobody again.
Dave Barry told me this story about Mark Russell, the political
satirist. It seems Russell gave this performance where he packed
the hall, got a standing O. He was The Man. Later, at the hotel,
The Man gets hungry, but the only place to eat is a McDonalds
across the road. The front door is locked, but the drive-through is
still open. So he stands in it. A car pulls in behind him. The driver
honks and yells, Great show, Mark!
For the record, I consider Leonard Pitts to be one of the greatest living
writers in the world today. Read his column and see if you dont
agree.
3. A Horizontal Connectedness is replacing yesterdays vertical,
social hierarchy. Labels like white collar and blue collar sound
almost racist today. The new American dream isnt about pulling
ahead and leaving the others behind. Its about becoming a productive
member of the team.
Winning has become less important than belonging.
Listen to the streets. Im number one, gets the response, You aint
all that, dog. You aint all that.
Labor unions were deader than a bag of hammers in 2004, a relic of the
past, so when I predicted that collective bargaining would reawaken
and gain momentum during the coming Civic outlook, audiences often
laughed or folded their arms and curled a lip, thinking I was advocating
organized labor. (I wasnt.)
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Have you heard about the Hollywood writers strike? Expect to see
Wal-Mart unionized in the upcoming years. Hide and watch. See if Im
not right.
4. Word-of-Mouth is the new Mass Media. Video games and
cable TV stripped our kids of their innocence at an early age, but the
Technology that robbed them of idyllic childhood also empowered
them with cell phones, blogs and blackberries.
Viral marketing wasnt created by the advertising community. Its
simply the result of a horizontally-connected generation (1.) sharing
their happy discoveries with each other and (2.) trying to protect one
another from mistakes.
WHAT THIS MEANS TO BUSINESS: Its no longer enough just to have
great advertising. When your customers carry cell phones and can
e-mail all their friends with a single click, you need to be exceptionally
good at what you do.
5. Boasting is a waste of time.
Your customer is saying, Talk is cheap. Actions speak louder than
words. Dont tell me what you believe. Show me.
IN YOUR ADS, do you include proofs of claim your reader, listener or
viewer can experience for themselves?
6. Everyone is broken a little.
And the most broken are those who pretend they are not.
Its time to take the advice of Bill Bernbach, Ive got a great gimmick.
Lets tell the truth.
7. Keep in mind that during the next 12 months, as we complete
the transition from the Idealist outlook to the Civic perspective, these
trends will be accelerated by the facts that:
(1.) Access to information is going up and
(2.) Access to money is going down.
By the way, if I ever win a Pulitzer, Ill immediately start wearing French
shirts with 3-inch cuff links that spell out PULITZER PRIZE WINNER
in diamonds.
But if what I said earlier about the last, reluctant holdout is true, I
expect my attitude will change approximately one second before
midnight on December 31, 2008.
Have a great week.
Roy H. Williams
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Thermal Expansion
Thermal expansion is usually defined as:
1. The use of thermal expansion, or contraction, of
materials.
a. e.g. Fit a tight joint together by cooling the
inner part to contract, heating the outer part
to expand, putting the joint together, and
returning to equilibrium.
2. If thermal expansion is being used, use multiple
materials with different coefficients of thermal
expansion.
a. e.g. The basic leaf-spring thermostat uses two
metals with different coefficients of expansion.
The metals are links so that it bends one way
when warmer than normal and the opposite
way when cooler.
An easy way to explain thermal expansion is to consider the
problem of a tight jar lid. If you cant undo a lid, you can always
heat up the jar to loosen the lid. Similarly, many people use
torches to loosen up tight bolts.
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The engine in my plane actually uses a combination of watercooled and air-cooled heads. Because water takes so much
longer to undergo a drastic temperature change, you cant
shock cool the engine.
A less literal application of Thermal Expansion is mixing up
team members in group projects. Pairing someone who is
hot in their career, with someone whos not, will encourage
creativity and productivity in the less outstanding employee.
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Strong Oxidants
The principle of Strong Oxidants is usually applied as follows:
1. Replace common air with oxygen-enriched air.
a. e.g. Scuba diving with Nitrox or other non-air
mixtures for extended endurance
2. Replace enriched air with pure oxygen.
a. e.g. Cut at a higher temperature using an oxyacetylene torch
3. Use ionized oxygen.
a. e.g. Ionize air to trap pollutants in an air cleaner
4. Replace ozonized or ionized oxygen with ozone.
a. e.g. Speed up chemical reactions by ionizing the
gas before use
Strong Oxidants essentially relates to increasing or decreasing
the concentration of oxygen in an environment. This lens can
be applied especially liberally, and does not necessarily have to
relate to the element of oxygen.
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Inert Atmosphere
The principle of Inert Atmosphere is typically applied as
follows:
1. Replace a normal environment with an inert one.
a. e.g. Prevent degradation of a hot metal filament
by using an argon atmosphere
2. Add neutral parts, or inert additives to an object.
a. e.g. Increase the volume of powdered detergent
by adding inert ingredients. This makes the
detergent easier to measure with conventional
tools.
We were once moving 300,000-pound rocket segments around
a brand new building at the Kennedy Space Center. When the
segments come from Utah, there are dozens of accessories that
have to be added to them before they are ready to fly. Of course,
being a new building, the cranes and structure had not been
checked out yet. We didnt want to be testing the reliability of
the new building with 300,000-pound pieces of dynamite, so
we replaced the Ammonium Perchlorate in the fuel recipe with
potassium chloride, an inert substance. The potassium chloride
still made the fuel look and feel like a real propellant, but it
couldnt burn. Because the substance was inert, we were able to
perform many safety operation checks on the facility.
A fire extinguisher is another example of Inert Atmosphere. A
Halon fire suppression system works because it takes the three
components of fire: fuel, spark, and oxygen, and chemically
reacts with them to make them inert.
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Composite Materials
The final lens, Composite Materials, is defined as changing
from uniform to composite materials. For instance, composite
epoxy resin/carbon fiber golf club shafts are lighter, stronger,
and more flexible than metal shafts.
Reinforced concrete
Honeycomb structures
Airplanes and composites
A cardboard box
Wood the worlds best overall composite
Have you heard of the Space Elevator project for placing
satellites in orbit without the need for rockets?
The space elevator concept has been around for a long time,
but has never been practical until now.
The analogy is this; take a ball and string. If you tie the string
to the ball and swing the ball around, the string will get tight
and the ball remains at a fixed distance from your hand due to
centrifugal force.
The earth is spinning around at a thousand miles an hour. If you
had a really long string (50,000 miles) and a ball at the end of it
and tied it to the ground, the same centrifugal force of the earth
spinning around at a speed of 1,000 miles per hour would do
the same thing; hold the string tight, straight upward toward
space!
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Conclusion
Lenny, Hank, Buck, and Walt were revolutionaries of their time
who changed the shape, scope, and direction of the world we
live in today. Many of these great men were not recognized for
their incredible accomplishments or the significance of their
achievements during their own lifetimes; in fact, most of these
men were perceived by their peers as misfits and rejects who
didnt have a clear grasp on reality. Perhaps Sigmund Freud
explained societys underestimation of their genius best in his
description of Lenny as a man who awoke too early in the
darkness while the others were still asleep.
Lenny, Hank, Buck, and Walt did not describe their methods
for creativity and innovation as The Basics. Although these
innovators could not have been conscious of their common
link, I believe their thought processes are evidence of their
mutual greatness. Like many of the great thinkers of our time,
their creativity flew from them unconsciously, leaving them
blissfully unaware of the uniqueness of their thoughts.
Weve uncovered the basics of these four mens creative
thought processes and examined how these principles align
with the tactics of TRIZ. As these great thinkers have proved,
creativity and innovation can be taught.
The Basics: Peel the Onion, Try It, Sensible Design, Clear as
Mud, View Point, Universal Network, and Ideal Final Result,
as well as The Tactics, the 40 Universal Answers of TRIZ, are
deliberate messages and deliberate tools to generate ideas
quickly and spark creativity and innovation.
I strive to give my readers and students this tool set so they
can consciously harness the incredible power that drove Lenny,
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Hank, Buck, and Walts creative genius and come up with some
crazy, wonderful, new ideas of their own.
At the Wizard Academy, we celebrate the weirdos, renegades,
and mavericks of the world. We celebrate the wisdom of
absurdity and audacity and understand the importance of
thinking outside the box. We encourage people to escape into
their right brain and strive to teach these right-brain concepts
in a way that everyone can comprehend.
It is my greatest hope that you use the tools of the Basics and
the Tactics to one day change your own world. I hope that you
share your newfound knowledge and help others escape from
the cage of their left brain and the restrictiveness of what cant
be done.
I hope that you can walk away from this book with some truly
great and unique ideas that will change the way you do business
and the way that you approach life.
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Afterward
Remember James Micheners advice to his students to take
ceramics and eurhythmic dancing? How many got off their butts
and actually did it? Are you going to put this book away and
say, Yeah, I get it, but then not do a single thing differently?
I sure hope not.
You have to take what you learned and apply the knowledge to
your business and life. This book wont do you a bit of good if
you just fall back into the-way-weve-always-done-it mode.
So go out there and apply the tools and concepts I have
talked about and when you do, I want to hear about your
experience.
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Glossary
40 Universal Answers also known as the 40 Principles of
TRIZ; the answers to the 1,500 basic problems.
Brainstorming Rules a list of 10 rules that should be utilized
in brainstorming sessions to achieve the optimal result.
Brocas Area the part of the brain that serves as the gatekeeper
for keeping boring experiences out of your memory. Brocas
area only allows unusual, exciting, or otherwise unexpected
things to be stored in your brain.
Buckminster Fuller (July 12, 1895 to July 1, 1983) best known
for the creation of the geodesic dome, Fuller was a philosopher
who once embarked on an experiment to discover what the
little, penniless, unknown individual might be able to do
effectively on behalf of all humanity.
Duality the concept of equal but opposite; a dual state or
quality, composed or consisting of twofold or double character
or nature
Genrikh Altshuller (October 15, 1926 to September 24, 1998)
a Russian engineer, scientist, journalist, and writer; famed for
his creation of TRIZ, a model-based technology for generating
innovative ideas and solutions.
Ideal Final Result Describes the solution to a problem, without
jargon, independent of the mechanism or constraints of the
original problem; the ultimate idealistic solution of a problem
when the desired result is achieved by itself.
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Index
Symbols
2nd Space Operations Squadron 39
40 Universal Answers 9
A
Acura TSX 69
adoption 85, 86, 88
AIDS 99, 100
Air Force 39, 67, 119
Alan Lightman 47
Albert Einstein 29, 112
Another Dimension 212
Ansari X Prize 114, 116
Asymmetry 163, 164, 165
B
beagle 19, 76
Becker 42, 44, 86
Beforehand Compensation 193, 194, 195
Blessing in Disguise 228
Blue Ice Vodka 70
Boeing 241, 242
Breakfast with the Birds 229, 230
Brocas area 78, 98
Buck 24, 28, 30, 133
Buckminster Fuller 9, 25, 28
Burt Rutan 114
C
California Milk Processor Board 153
Challenger 39, 101, 134
Charlie \Tremendous\ Jones 47
Cheap Disposables 249
Chip and Dan Heath 97
Chuck Yeager 41
Clear as Mud 74, 133
CN Tower 213
Color/Clarity Changes 265, 267
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D
Dave Campbell 94
David McInnis 119
Dean Rotbart 156
deductive reasoning 12
Department of Defense 90
Discarding and Recovering 273
Disney World 212
DNA 90, 201, 244
Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain 103
Dr. Betty Edwards 103
Dr. Dane 113, 114
Dr. Edward Jenner 50
Dynamics 206
E
Einstein 38, 112
Elizabeth Smart 89
EPCOT 30
Equipotentiality 196
erectile dysfunction 49
F
Feedback 234, 237
Flexible Shells and Thin Films 257
frameline magnetism 152
G
Genrikh Altshuller 9, 10, 25, 26, 30
geodesic dome 29
Global Positioning System 38
Goodby, Silverstein & Partners 153
302
H
Hank 24, 26, 30, 133
Homogeneity 271
Humphrey Davy 111
hypothesis 12, 55, 103
I
Ideal Final Result 117, 119, 133, 145
IFR 117, 118, 119
IMAX 212
Inert Atmosphere 288
innovation 8, 9, 11, 25, 27, 30, 31, 34, 54, 94, 110, 111, 113, 116, 134, 146,
165, 169, 285, 294, 297
Intermediary 240
J
Jared campaign 100
John F. Kennedy 99
John Forbes Nash 111
K
Ken Jennings 55
Kennedy Space Center 288
Kerry Mullis 201
Kurt Vonnegut 20
L
left brain 13, 14, 18, 19, 20, 65, 76
Lenny 24, 25, 26, 30, 47, 133
lenses 10, 143, 165, 181, 197, 204, 253, 268
Leonardo da Vinci 9, 25, 26, 30
Local Quality 156, 157, 158, 159, 160
M
Mac 63
Made to Stick 97, 99
magnetic poles 74, 81
marketing 8, 10, 46, 62, 63, 69, 77, 95, 96, 151, 153, 164, 165, 171, 174,
191, 210, 235, 236, 237, 296
303
N
NASA 66, 101, 102, 116, 134
NBA 99
Neil Armstrong 41
Nested Doll 175, 176
Netflix 176
Niels Bohr 13
Nobel Prize 13, 111, 112, 113, 201
Nutty Guys 175
O
O-rings 39, 163
P
Parameter Change 275
Parker Hannifin 241
Partial or Excessive Action 208
patents 10, 27, 28
Pat Riley 193
Peel the Onion 32, 133
Periodic Action 221
Phase Transition 277
Phil Baker 180
Phone-Card-Phone 109
Pneumatics and Hydraulics 255, 256
Polymerase Chain Reaction 201
Porous Materials 262, 263
Post-it Notes 267
Preliminary Action 190
Preliminary Counteraction 186, 187
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R
Radio-Frequency Identification 227
Rainforest Safari 230
Randice-Lisa Altshul 109
Reebok Pump 110, 256
RFID tag 227
Richard Feynman 41
right brain 9, 13, 14, 15, 19, 20, 22, 76, 104
Robert Frank 152
Robert Fulton 111
Robin Culbreath 266
Rolls Royce 69
Roy H. Williams 8, 10
R&R Partners 153
S
Sally Ride 41
SBIR 134
scientific method 12
score.org 46
Segmentation 144
Self-Service 243, 244, 245
Sensible Design 60, 68, 71, 133
Sidenafil 49
Sigmund Freud 25, 74
Skipping 225, 226
Skype 176
Sly as a Fox 146
Small Business Innovation Research 134
smallpox 50, 51
solar radiometer 34, 35
Solar Sailor 114
Solid Rocket Boosters 32, 65, 249
SpaceShipOne 115
Steve Jobs 63
Strong Oxidants 284
swamp coolers 263
Sydney Bay Bridge 170
Sydney Harbor 113
T
Taking Out 150, 151, 153
Temple Grandin 145
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U
Universal Network 109, 130, 133, 226, 256
Universal Studios 94, 95, 96
V
Viagra 49
View Point 85, 132, 133, 134, 268
Vince Poscente 225
Vitruvian Man 26
Voyager 114
W
Walt 9, 24, 25, 29, 30, 133
Walt Disney 9, 25, 29
Weight Compensation 179
Wendy Silver 110
Wizard Academy 8, 10, 22, 25, 119, 201
Words of the Wizard 10
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Even with all I knew, I was not fully prepared for the
experience I had at the Academy Who else but a wizard
can make sense of so many divergent ideas? I highly
recommend it.
Mark Huffman,
Advertising Production Manager, Procter & Gamble
A life-altering 72 hours.
Jim Rubart
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